Author Topic: Few questions considering Avast for Mac  (Read 5333 times)

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Semris

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Few questions considering Avast for Mac
« on: January 26, 2012, 09:49:17 AM »
1) How does Mail Shield work? Mail no longer uses SSL... sooo... Avast is checking for new mails using SSL and then is forwarding new mails to Mail app? Just wondering if this doesn't actually lower my level of security by abandoning SSL in Mail app.

2) I have no doubts about Avast finding Win threats. How far you got considering Mac threats so far?

3) Detail level: infections and warnings - during my scan yesterday I got plenty of warnings (over 60, including errors on Bootcamp partition which were not found by PC Avast...). Few examples:

/Applications/Dragon Age/DLC Installers/Dragon Age Origins Deluxe Edition DLC Installer.app/Contents/Resources/StonePrisoner.tgz/StonePrisoner.tar

Error 42110 The file is decompression bomb  :o

/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/test/testtar.tar/

Error 42128 TAR Archive is corrupted

/Volumes/BOOTCAMP/Users/***********/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/Temporary Internet Files/Content.IE5/7K533VK0/IE9-win7[1].msu/Windows6.1-KB982861-x64.cab/amd64_microsoft-windows-ieframe_31bf3856ad364e35_9.4.8112.16437_none_d93bdcb180c57fefieframe.dll

Error 42127 CAB archive is corrupted

Anyway I didn't choose "fix" for any of those "errors" since I don't trust the beta that much yet. Does this Avast feature work as intended?

4) Same like on PC, the application runs since on background since I sign in as user without launching the UI from bar (open Avast)?

Thanks
« Last Edit: January 26, 2012, 12:33:07 PM by Semris »

Offline tumic

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Re: Few questions considering Avast for Mac
« Reply #1 on: January 26, 2012, 01:47:50 PM »
1) How does Mail Shield work? Mail no longer uses SSL... sooo... Avast is checking for new mails using SSL and then is forwarding new mails to Mail app? Just wondering if this doesn't actually lower my level of security by abandoning SSL in Mail app.

If you configure the account (mail server) as "SSL only" in the avast! preferences, the mailshield forces SSL when connecting to the mailserver, so no "security level decrease" does happen.

2) I have no doubts about Avast finding Win threats. How far you got considering Mac threats so far?

The number of Mac OS X specific viruses we detect is indeed much lower than the number of Windows viruses as there is generally much less Mac OS X viruses. But if You get infected, it doesn't matter if the infection was one of 100 or one of 1000000...

3) Detail level: infections and warnings - during my scan yesterday I got plenty of warnings (over 60, including errors on Bootcamp partition which were not found by PC Avast...). Few examples:

/Applications/Dragon Age/DLC Installers/Dragon Age Origins Deluxe Edition DLC Installer.app/Contents/Resources/StonePrisoner.tgz/StonePrisoner.tar

Error 42110 The file is decompression bomb  :o

/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/test/testtar.tar/

Error 42128 TAR Archive is corrupted

/Volumes/BOOTCAMP/Users/***********/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/Temporary Internet Files/Content.IE5/7K533VK0/IE9-win7[1].msu/Windows6.1-KB982861-x64.cab/amd64_microsoft-windows-ieframe_31bf3856ad364e35_9.4.8112.16437_none_d93bdcb180c57fefieframe.dll

Error 42127 CAB archive is corrupted

Anyway I didn't choose "fix" for any of those "errors" since I don't trust the beta that much yet. Does this Avast feature work as intended?

This has been discussed many times on this forum, please see the appropriate posts.

4) Same like on PC, the application runs since on background since I sign in as user without launching the UI from bar (open Avast)?

The core and the shields start on system start so avast! runs even before you log in.

Semris

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Re: Few questions considering Avast for Mac
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2012, 02:25:53 PM »

2) I have no doubts about Avast finding Win threats. How far you got considering Mac threats so far?

The number of Mac OS X specific viruses we detect is indeed much lower than the number of Windows viruses as there is generally much less Mac OS X viruses. But if You get infected, it doesn't matter if the infection was one of 100 or one of 1000000...

Yep, there is not much OS X based threats as of now, yet it would be nice to known they are covered (or soon™ will be). There are other AV softwares on the market which do cover threats aimed on OS X users (or at least claim so).

_____

Thanks for the response, I will check the other threads about warnings.

Have a good day.