Norton online vulnerability scan...is it good?

[The Duck]

I have a question about www.norton.com online vulnerability scan, I used it and it seems good. Do you guys think its good and accurate?? Please give me your thoughts.

[nihil]

Well,

It fell at the first hurdle, it doesn't seem to like Mozilla 1.6?

[MrLinus]

I answered this question in another thread but basically, it's dependent on ActiveX to run. This would lead me to believe that the "scan" is limited to certain activities. It only works for Windows and Pre-OS X Macintoshes, going through the browser to get information. It would make me wonder, however, as to what other info they are getting.

Personally, if I could get it to run, I'd fire up some sniffer programs to see what it's doing exactly. Perhaps someone with a Windows box and IE (with ActiveX) enabled could fire up WinDump/Ethereal and ProcessExplorer to see what things this "scanner" is actually doing.

[Tiger Shark]

I'll take a look at that when I finish the securityspace thingy.....

[nihil]

I just got it to run.......................it seems like a "poor man's shields up"...........scans a few ports.

I don't have anything fancy on this machine, so I will leave that to Tiger. But whatever it does is within itself as far as I can see......Winsonar did not detect any new background processes, and nothing tried to get out.

It does not recognise AVG as a commonly used AV, but does recognise e-trust.........I think I must e-mail AVG and get their opinion on that one

I will also test it on a machine with the latest McAfee.............just to be sure that I have not wasted my money

Cheers

[CXGJarrod]

Does anyone know how it checks for an updated Antivirus?

[DjM]

Originally posted here by CXGJarrod
Does anyone know how it checks for an updated Antivirus?

It's hooked right into the Symantec site and updates automatically.

Cheers:

[nihil]

Hi CXJ,

Yes it looks to see if the pattern file is less than 2 weeks old..............otherwise I suspect that all AV systems are out of date if they are not Norton?


Actually I think out of date might mean "free" but I will find that out when I run it on a McAfee box?

cheers

[CXGJarrod]

Originally posted here by nihil
Hi CXJ,

Yes it looks to see if the pattern file is less than 2 weeks old..............otherwise I suspect that all AV systems are out of date if they are not Norton?


Actually I think out of date might mean "free" but I will find that out when I run it on a McAfee box?

cheers

I meant the scanner (not my currently installed antivirus - if that is what you meant DjM). How does it tell if you are out of date? Does it scan your hard drive for common virus definition files or is it somehow checking your running processes?

[nihil]

CXGJ, I have run it on two machines............it recognised e-trust as a "commonly used AV" and told me that my definitions were up to date (updated them about 24 hours ago)

It did not recognise that the box with AVG actually had an AV on it, let alone that it was up to date (which it is).

I am suspecting from that, that it knows some AV products and their pattern/ definition files and just looks for the date.

I think I can check that by going back to the other (e-trust) machine and killing the active scan? Then we will see if it is looking for files or processes?

Hey, I NEVER EVEN THOUGHT to ask myself how did it do it.......................I'm getting too bloody old for this game.

Watch this space, I will edit this post with the results...........I am too much of a post whore as it is

Cheers