Zonealarm Firewall Bugged Bug in ZoneAlarm Causes 50,000 PC To Crash

[varunone 0]

A bug in a Zone Labs update caused firewall crashes late Thursday for about 50,000 users of the popular ZoneAlarm Pro and ZoneAlarm Security Suite products.

 

The crashes happened after people downloaded the daily Program Advisor update, said Gregor Freund, general manager of Zone Labs, which is part of Check Point Software. Thursday's update contained a bug that had slipped by Zone Labs' quality checks.

 

"There was somewhat of a process breakdown," Freund said on Friday.

 

The Program Advisor update is a list of trusted programs that tells the firewall which applications should be allowed to connect to the Internet without user interaction. A new version of the list is produced daily. By default, ZoneAlarm products check on start-up for a new version and download and install it, Freund said.

 

Most customers who experienced the crashes were in Asia, because it was morning there when the update was first made available and users were starting up their PCs. About 3 million people use ZoneAlarm Pro and ZoneAlarm Security Suite worldwide, according to ZoneLabs's figures.

 

The faulty update was made available around 4 p.m. Pacific Time on Thursday. Zone Labs discovered the issue after customers began reporting crashes. The problem was replicated in the software maker's security lab and resolved within five hours, according to a posting on Zone Labs' Web site.

 

The company late Thursday posted a corrected Program Advisor update.

 

The free ZoneAlarm firewall does not include the Program Advisor feature and was thus not affected.

NOTE : This was not a virus threat only a programming error

 

 

Cheers

 

Notice from snlildude87:

Did you write this? Google doesn't think so.

Edited June 14, 2005 by snlildude87 (see edit history)

[alperuzi 0]

Zone alarm is not a proper firewall, I would strongly encourage zonealarm users to change to some REAL firewall software such as Sygate, Kerio or Outpost.This comes from someone knowing this kinda stuff...

[varunone 0]

Alright Zone Alarm might not be the best, but then which one is ?You gave three options 1... Sygate2... Kerio3... OutpostSo which one is the best ... and also ... should be free, cause we home junkies dont like wasting money for sitting on our computers and getting fat ( just kiddin )

[snlildude87 0]

Alright Zone Alarm might not be the best, but then which one is ?

 

You gave three options

 

1... Sygate

2... Kerio

3... Outpost

 

So which one is the best ... and also ... should be free, cause we home junkies dont like wasting money for sitting on our computers and getting fat ( just kiddin )

150952[/snapback]

You said free, so the best firewall out of those three options is Kerio. Now, the best firewall out of the options you gave me, regardless of price, is Outpost. There were several tests that various websites have done that proved that Outpost was the best because it passed most of the leak tests, but the web pages now generate 404 errors.

 

Kerio = good = free

Outpost = best = not free

[sonyguy 0]

I use ZoneAlarm, glad I didn't get hit. I thinka good firewall is, suprisingly, Microsoft's Anti-Spyware, although it's still in the beta stages, it's very good!

[varunone 0]

Now, the best firewall out of the options you gave me

150968[/snapback]

They were not options they were simply what was suggested by "alperuzi"

 

If You feel there is a better free firewall out there, above Kerio, has you mentioned then please suggest me.

 

I have been using Zone Alarm for quite sometime now. I am not sure, may be 3 yrs or more, just can't remember.

 

I have never had any problems with it. Thought the new happening was very weird as i did not hear about any updates available in the first place. Even now the updater shows that the software is upto date. It's set not to update automatically and i do it manually. I really find this weird that it did not detect any new updates and still it is not detecting after the new patches came up.

 

The only reason i could think of is that i dont use the feature of Zone Alarm. I have set everything to the highest level of security and allow permision on a need basis whenever the software prompts me.

 

Anyways ill give Kerio a shot today and checkout outputs website, in the mean time let me know which is the best ... in free and paid category.

 

Thanks

[varunone 0]

I use ZoneAlarm, glad I didn't get hit. I thinka good firewall is, suprisingly, Microsoft's Anti-Spyware, although it's still in the beta stages, it's very good!

150997[/snapback]

I second that ... Microsot Anti-Spyware is very good. I have used it and found it better than mcafee and norton. It was able to detect more virus threats and it even warns you of many things that others over look, like changing settings in MSCONFIG. Though its normally I who is using the feature but it is a little reassuring that if something is going wrong it will be prompted.

 

Thought its still in beta phase, i am waiting was the final version to come out. It will really be something.

[varunone 0]

Sorry, Forgot to mension that it even detected the adware bug in p2p software that both mcafee scanner and zone alarm had over looked. This is a big thing cause i thought i had got rid of them. Really makes you wonder how good the anti virus and firewall softwares are ?

[varunone 0]

I was checking out Kerio and Outpost, seems like Outpost also has a

free version.

 

http://www.agnitum.com/index.php

 

snlildude87, Is it better than Kerio's free version ?

[snlildude87 0]

They were not options they were simply what was suggested by "alperuzi"

 

If You feel there is a better free firewall out there, above Kerio, has you mentioned then please suggest me.

 

I have been using Zone Alarm for quite sometime now. I am not sure, may be 3 yrs or more, just can't remember.

 

I have never had any problems with it. Thought the new happening was very weird as i did not hear about any updates available in the first place. Even now the updater shows that the software is upto date. It's set not to update automatically and i do it manually. I really find this weird that it did not detect any new updates and still it is not detecting after the new patches came up.

 

The only reason i could think of is that i dont use the feature of Zone Alarm. I have set everything to the highest level of security and allow permision on a need basis whenever the software prompts me.

 

Anyways ill give Kerio a shot today and checkout outputs website, in the mean time let me know which is the best ... in free and paid category.

 

Thanks

151002[/snapback]

Maybe you didn't understand my response. Out of the three options that alperuzi gave you, Kerio is the best free firewall, and Outpost is the best firewall if you're willing to pay money. Got it? Edited June 14, 2005 by snlildude87 (see edit history)

[varunone 0]

ok,Anyways i am downloading the 30 days trial of outpost will try it out before i try Kerio then will post my thought :PCheers