Malwarebytes updates lead to a weekend full of crashing computers

It was a rough weekend for California-based Malwarebytes after the anti-virus company had to push several updates to its Endpoint Security products in order to combat an issue that crashed machines due to high RAM usage.

Soon after the company pushed an update to its Endpoint Security products, users flooded forums complaining that the product was using as much as 90 percent of their machine’s memory or CPU.

The company pushed an update about an hour after the problems first surfaced, but that update caused users’ machines to crash upon a reboot.

A second update, pushed later Saturday, seemed to fix the issue. However, the company has offered help in case any further issues arise as the work week hits full stride on Monday.

“The root cause of the issue was a malformed protection update that the client couldn’t process correctly,” states a company blog post. “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 and will work to ensure that this does not happen again.”

The post also gives instructions for how to update various versions of the company’s product.

“Getting your computer or business back up and running is our utmost priority, as is rebuilding your trust,” the post reads.