Some Reason Why I Am Not Using Symantec

[zaqy 0]

Symantec Antivirus Software Open To Attack

 

The bug, which could result in a completely compromised machine, remains unpatched, although Symantec has issued an advisory.

 

By Gregg Keizer

TechWeb News

 

Dec 20, 2005 05:06 PM

 

Symantec's line of anti-virus software is vulnerable to attack, a prominent security researcher revealed Tuesday. The bug is currently unpatched, although Symantec has issued an advisory.

 

The vulnerability, which was discovered and reported by Alex Wheeler, is in how Symantec's AntiVirus Library, part of all the Cupertino, Calif.-based security giant's anti-virus products, handles RAR compressed files. RAR files are created by the WinRAR compression utility, developed and sold by RarLab.

 

The bug, labeled as "Highly critical" by Danish vulnerability tracker Secunia and "High" by Symantec itself, can cause a heap overflow, which then may let an attacker execute additional code. Bottom-line: the bug could result in a completely compromised machine.

 

"The issues can be leveraged remotely to gain complete control over the affected system," Symantec wrote in an alert Tuesday morning to customers of its DeepSight Threat Management System.

 

All editions of Symantec's Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus, including AntiVirus for the Macintosh, are at risk, as are other products which include the Library. Those include such enterprise-specific lines as AntiVirus Corporate Edition, Brightmail Anti-Spam, Client Security, and Gateway Security.

 

Symantec has not issued a patch for the vulnerability, but the DeepSight alert recommended that users disable scanning for RAR archive files.

 

Wheeler is well known among researchers for his probing of security software weaknesses. Earlier in 2005, he disclosed a slew of vulnerabilities in software from major vendors like McAfee, Kaspersky Labs, F-Secure, and Trend Micro. All the bugs he has discovered involve how the various anti-virus scanning engines handle compressed files.

 

This is the second scanning vulnerability Wheeler has uncovered in Symantec's product line. In February, while working with Internet Security Systems, a Symantec rival, he announced a bug in how Symantec's scanning engine could be hacked as it sniffed through UPX-formatted files.

i put this information because some people tell me they were unabel to go to the site

 

Symantec Trouble

 

Notice from mayank:

Thank you for providing me the link..from where you copied all this stuff. It saved my research time. Please note that you've to put each and everything in the quotes which is copied...even if it is copied from your own site.

Edited December 22, 2005 by mayank (see edit history)

[Inspiron 0]

Hey hey hey... Put that in quote tags or the moderators shall penalise you for that..Anyway, I've already felt that Symantec seemed to be vulnerable to attacks afew years ago when I was using Norton AntiVirus 2000. Their products are running real slow on any computers, worst still resulting bootup times to about 1 minute longer.. I cannot stand such speed.. But I cannot deny that Symantec issn't working well. They seem to catch every viruses that other free antivirus software don't. The way they make people update their software makes me suspicious about vulnerability issue. The update program seem to open another gate to welcome virus if we don't pay for subscription with Symantec, it seemed to be though might not be true.I believe Symantec will lose in the market if some other anti-virus software companies load their programs faster, free and catches viruses and threats more efficiently than Symantec..

[zaqy 0]

i put this information because some people tell me they were unabel to go to the site

 

Symantec Trouble

 

Notice from mayank:

Thank you for providing me the link..from where you copied all this stuff. It saved my research time. Please note that you've to put each and everything in the quotes which is copied...even if it is copied from your own site.

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Ok² I understand.

 

btw thanks for information i try to edit my post buat in 3 hours a go i was sleepy and i dunno which place to edit my post. I never Use IPB Before .

 

thanks

[Mature Lamb 0]

I also dont use Symantec because it's very laggy while playing online games. I'd recommend Bullguard, or Kaspersky.

[shigajet 0]

In Japan, there's a competing anti-virus software called Trend Micro Virus Buster, which many people have recommended to me over Symantec Norton Utilities. I'm willing to give it a shot, but I'm wondering if people other parts of the world have heard any good (or not so good) results from Trend Micro products.