Protection Engine returns decomposer 41 error when scanning a specific EXE file

Products

• Protection Engine for NAS

Issue/Introduction

An EXE file was being submitted to Symantec Protection Engine (SPE) and the scan result was a failure. The return code (as recorded in SPE logs) was decomposer 41.

Environment

Protection Engine 9.2

Cause

The file was a compressed EXE which was also password protected. When attempting to execute the file it presented a password challenge.

When attempting to extract the file via 7zip it also presented a password challenge.

Resolution

The problem file needed to be recompiled without a password protecting it.  

Turning off Encrypted File Archive Handling will not correct this particular error.