Introduction:
If your Creative has been flagged by VirusTotal, even just one vendor within VirusTotal, the Creative will be rejected until every flag has been removed. This includes all redirect URLs, and final landing page URLs. This review applies to every newly submitted and resubmitted Creative, but the team will periodically review all active Creatives to ensure no new flags have appeared post-approval.
*Please note: VirusTotal is an information aggregator and is not responsible for clearing the flags. False positive issues should be addressed directly with the AV company/vendor that is flagging the URL. A list of all VirusTotal security vendors can be found here.
The below instructions will walk you through how to manually identify the vendors flagging your URL(s) so that you may contact them directly and submit a false positive report.
Rejection Notice
First, please check your rejection notice. You can view rejection notices anytime in the Platform; instructions can be found here. Please open the screenshot attached to your rejection notice as it will show the URL being flagged as well as the vendor(s) flagging it.
How to: Manually Check Single URL
Follow these instructions to check the current status of the AV flag(s) on VirusTotal.
Go to VirusTotal.com
Select 'URL'.
Paste the URL that is being flagged in the Search bar.
Click 'Enter'.
*Important*: Click 'Reanalyze' on the upper right to view the most current status.
You will now see how many vendors flagged your URL(s) under the "Security vendors' analysis" section.
To get the flags cleared, you will need to contact the vendor(s) directly. If you believe it is a false positive:
Please visit VirusTotal's False Positive Contacts page.
Please reach out to the vendor(s) directly, or review their website(s), and follow their process for submitting a false positive.
It is entirely up to the vendor to decide if the flag will be removed. They are also responsible for uploading these changes to VirusTotal. This can take up to a few days.
If the vendor removed the flag, follow steps 1-6 above to verify that VirusTotal has been updated. Once your URL comes back clean on VirusTotal, please resubmit your Creative(s) for review by changing the Creative status from 'Rejected' to 'Active'.
Note: Your Creative can only be approved once there are zero flags listed on VirusTotal.