Malwarebytes Anti Malware 3 (MBAM) high memory usage

[German]Just a short information for people who are using Malwarebytes Anti Malware 3 (MBAM). Currently the software seems has a massive memory leak problem, that eating all free memory on a machine. Addendum: There is a fix available – see inside text.

A German blog reader has just alerted me about this issue by e-mail. He has noticed the following:

Malwarebytes consumes the entire RAM of my PC. I have 20 GB and then MBAM 3 took 98% of it. It cannot be stopped, nor can it be kille, because malware bytes then always starts itself.

That's bad, of course, but MBAM restarting, after the process has been killed, is logical, because otherwise a malware could disable the protection with a simple buffer overflow.

Discussion in Malwarebytes forum

This behavior is already discussed within Malwarebyte forum. Within this thread a user outlines the same issue.

The screenshot shows that the malware byte service has already seized 24 GB of RAM. The developers have already confirmed the issue. And within this tread many users are discussing about the memory leak. Also at reddit.com is a discussion about the high memory usage.

Workaround: Disable MBAM service

Currently, only a workaround can help: Disable the Malwarebyte service (set the service to disable). Then reboot the computer with Windows. This deactivates Malwarebytes Anti Malware 3 (MBAM). As soon as an update is available and installed, the service can be restarted. Thanks to Detlef K. for the tip.

Addendum: Update fixes the issue

Malwarebytes has released an update. And CEO, Marcin Kleczynski, has published a statement.

Earlier this morning, we published a protection update that caused connection issues for many of our customers. As a side effect of the web protection blocks, the product also spiked memory usage and possibly caused a crash. We have triaged this issue and pushed a protection update that resolves it.

If the update does not resolve the issue automatically for you, please shut down web protection, check for protection updates, and restart your computer.

The root cause of the issue was a malformed protection update that the client couldn't process correctly. We have pushed upwards of 20,000 of these protection updates routinely. We test every single one before it goes out. We pride ourselves on the safety and accuracy of our detection engines. To say I am heartbroken is an understatement.

We are working hard to not only triage your issues and get your computer or business back up and running but to also rebuild your trust. We are going to overhaul how we publish these protection updates so that this never happens again.

I am personally available to discuss both on this forum via personal message or at mkleczynski@malwarebytes.com

Here the solution from Malwarebytes to fix the issue:

*** How to resolve / verify you have the fixed update package ***

Update package version 1.0.3803 (Malwarebytes 3) or v2018.01.27.12 (Malwarebytes 2.x) or higher contains the fix

To resolve, simply reboot your machine. In some cases, a second or third reboot may be needed.

To verify you have this update, go to Settings -> About -> Update package version: 1.0.3803