Sync Error (Report ID 1587133340) and Sophos Quarantine

rob-hammond
I seem to be having an issue with Zotero not syncing between my remote and local libraries due to some access issue. I am also simultaneously having issues with my Sophos anti-virus software reporting temporary files as potential malware. Previously I was able to still use Zotero as normal, but now it seems that I can only add sources manually.
  • dstillman
    [JavaScript Error: "Unix error 13 during operation open on file /Users/[…]/Zotero/tmp/SBGVMJMJ.zip (Permission denied)" {file: "(unknown module)" line: 0}]
    I'm a bit confused why you're posting here — I explained via email that this is a problem in Sophos that we can't do anything about:
    It'd either be a false positive or flagging of a webpage snapshot saved to your Zotero library.

    For the former, it'd just be flagging the normal ZIP files that Zotero creates for every webpage snapshot during syncing, and you'd have to figure out how to whitelist the Zotero data directory.

    For the latter, it'd be finding a problem in a specific webpage snapshot that was saved to your library from some compromised or malicious website — fairly harmless, but, e.g., a JavaScript bitcoin miner that runs as long as the page is open. You'd have to look for a path from Sophos to identify such a file.

    I discuss the difference here: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/69212/zotero-stores-temporary-zip-files-that-raise-false-positive-deletions-by-sophos/p1

    Since that forum thread, Zotero no longer saves JavaScript with snapshots, so the latter issue wouldn't be possible for new files.
    You said you would follow up with your IT department. There's nothing we can do about this on our end. If something blocks Zotero from accessing the disk, various things are going to fail.
  • rob-hammond
    This was a separate error that I was getting, but wasn't sure if it was related or not. The error message says to post to the forum. It seems like it's basically the same problem then based on your response, thanks.
  • dstillman
    Yeah, it's the same underlying problem — just a permission denied error from Zotero's perspective, which we can't do anything about.
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