Avast 7 Final Released

[NSG001]

Source: Official avast! forum

List of most important changes:
http://www.avast.com/en-us/release-history

Direct download links (before the partner sites get refreshed)
http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/avast_free_antivirus_setup.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/avast_pro_antivirus_setup.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/avast_internet_security_setup.exe

Update from v6 should of course be also possible via the built-in program updater.

Additional details to come soon.

Thanks
Vlk

 

[Nathan Wootton]

beat me to it! DAMN!

 

[MrXidus]

Great, Firing up VMWare, I'm going to perform a test right now. I'm also liking the new website design.

 

[WinAndLinuxTutorials]

Thanks for the notice!

http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

 

[NSG001]

Seems upgrades can be borked, so preferable to do clean install i think.

 

[samit]

changelog:
1. Reputation scanning via FileRep (cloud-based)
2. Streaming updates
3. Sandbox & Autosandbox improvements
4. Remote assistance
5. Browser protection improvements (including antiphishing)
6. New installer
7. Export/Import settings
8. UI facelift
9. Screensaver facelift
10. Runs on Win8 Developer Preview
11. Many other security and stability related fixes

---

new website is pretty cool

 

[Vextor]

Damnit, i couldn't complete the beta editing in time, because of Camtastia's crashes. Sigh.

 

[samit]

Damnit, i couldn't complete the beta editing in time, because of Camtastia's crashes. Sigh.

beta version didn't last even for a week.....never mind you can test final version now....

 

[NathanF1]

Upgraded to 7 on couple of PCs.
[attachment=1093]

Both upgrades were smooth and I didn't experience any issues.

Cloud Services
[attachment=1094][attachment=1095]


Sandboxing
Very promising virtualization options - especially the Drop Admin Rights, Virtualized Processes [and folders], Internet Access restrictions. It's a sincere compliment to Ronen Tzur's vision and technical ability to challenge the paradigm of traditional heavy-handed tactics in the fight against malware [virus definitions, heuristics, behavior blockers] and utilize original and lightweight approach to security.
[attachment=1096]
[attachment=1097]
[attachment=1098]


Remote Assistance
The new Remote Assistance feature allows Avast users to help other people who also use the program solve technical or malware-related issues by temporarily taking control of their computers.

The remote assistance sessions are routed through Avast's servers in order to ensure their security and can only be initiated by the users whose computers will be controlled. When a session is initiated, an 8-digit code gets generated and needs to be communicated to the remote user. The remote assistance feature doesn't require any special firewall rules or exceptions to work, because it relies only on outbound connections to Avast's server.

In addition to providing remote assistance to other people, Avast Antivirus 7 allows users to monitor multiple installations of the program with an online Avast account. This is done through a Web portal where users can see the Avast-protected computers under their management, their protection status, which virus database version they have, which malware files they recently blocked and other information.

It's similar to the central management consoles found in business products, but for now it's read only. Users can't modify the settings of remote Avast installations through the interface, but there are plans to add this functionality in the future.
[attachment=1099]

Edit: Added details about Remote Assistance.

 

[Littlebits]

The upgrade process went smooth on two of my systems as well, just used the program updater on Avast.

I used remote assistance on two customers systems so far. Did some basics (disk cleanup, defrag, software updates, etc.) It was a bit more simple than using Team Viewer, I experienced some lags but never lost connections. Sometimes Team Viewer lags as well.

Remote assistance will make avast more appealing to users, computer techs and even businesses. I believe avast is the first to offer this feature.

I tested a few no digital signature files and avast did its job asking to run them in sandbox.
Of coarse these files were safe, but checking for digital signatures is one of the best ways to avoid malware since malware doesn't have digital signatures.

avast has come a long ways since it first came out, I can remember how crappy it was.
Now is one of the best AV's for both free and paid.

Thanks.

 

[NathanF1]

Upgrade almost finished?
You can try this workaround [check reply #8] If you get a popup being displayed on every restart, stating you're almost finished with the upgrade [the option to Participate in Avast! community not displayed].
[attachment=1106]

Creating [or connecting to] an avast account also seems to fix this [at least for me].
[attachment=1105]


Drop Admin Rights and SafeZone
Beware of internet connectivity issue for SafeZone when the Drop administrative rights and run virtualized applications as a limited user option is selected in the Virtualization Properties.Same for running SafeZoneBrowser sandboxed. Or is it just me?


Browser Protection
Sandboxing browsers [analog to forced programs in SBIE], WebRep and Phishing filter options.
[attachment=1103] [attachment=1104]

 

[moonshine]

Removed MSE to try out the latest version and I'm amazed with the improvements especially the Streaming Updates and the improved Virtualization Technologies.

 

[Chiron]

I tested a few no digital signature files and avast did its job asking to run them in sandbox.
Of coarse these files were safe, but checking for digital signatures is one of the best ways to avoid malware since malware doesn't have digital signatures.

Actually, these days there is a good amount of malware that is digitally signed.

 

[Littlebits]

I tested a few no digital signature files and avast did its job asking to run them in sandbox.
Of coarse these files were safe, but checking for digital signatures is one of the best ways to avoid malware since malware doesn't have digital signatures.

Actually, these days there is a good amount of malware that is digitally signed.

Really give me just one example or (PM me a sample) of a malicious software that is digitally signed and can pass verification process by both AV's and Windows. Some malicious software have fake digital signatures but it is easily identify by most AV's and Windows own digital file checker. I'm not talking about harmless adware because yes some of them have digital signatures but they are not malicious, they may have some privacy issues, change browser settings and display rogue adverts, etc. but they will not harm your system.

Many of these digitally signed adwares are no longer detected by most AV's and some security software companies even have partnerships with them now.

Thanks.

 

[MrXidus]

Actually, these days there is a good amount of malware that is digitally signed.

Really give me just one example or (PM me a sample) of a malicious software that is digitally signed and can pass verification process by both AV's and Windows.

Certainly. Direct yourself at one of my threads.

hxxp://malwaretips.com/Thread-WARNING-Win32-Trojan-Backdoors-Sefnits-Krypts

1:05 - 1:33 in the video. A couple different pieces of digitally signed malware.

Screenshot related. You can take a look at the file yourself. At the time of finding this piece of malware it didn't even have a hash at VirusTotal, Once uploaded. Only detected by 3/43 vendors, 6/43 vendors.

This is no adaware. Pure malware and a threat to the system. Windows "verification process" doesn't do anything to stop it and If I had an anti-virus that didn't have a valid signature at the time, I'd be infected. Thanks.

Awaiting the counter-argument.

 

[Littlebits]

Actually, these days there is a good amount of malware that is digitally signed.

Really give me just one example or (PM me a sample) of a malicious software that is digitally signed and can pass verification process by both AV's and Windows.

Certainly. Direct yourself at one of my threads.

hxxp://malwaretips.com/Thread-WARNING-Win32-Trojan-Backdoors-Sefnits-Krypts

1:05 - 1:33 in the video. A couple different pieces of digitally signed malware.

Screenshot related. You can take a look at the file yourself. At the time of finding this piece of malware it didn't even have a hash at VirusTotal, Once uploaded. Only detected by 3/43 vendors, 6/43 vendors.

This is no adaware. Pure malware and a threat to the system. Windows "verification process" doesn't do anything to stop it and If I had an anti-virus that didn't have a valid signature at the time, I'd be infected. Thanks.

Awaiting the counter-argument. There always is one.

I believe you have two separate issues confused.

Digitally signed files and signatures for malware are not the same.

Digital signed files are files that have been signed by the software vendor and verified.
Malware signatures are ways that AV vendors detect malware.

Avast uses and many other AV's use both ways to detect malware.

For example: An avast user tries to download a zero-day malware. avast doesn't have the malware signature for this malware but is still able to detect that it isn't digitally signed by a trusted vendor, so it can still stop this infection. avast will display a notification about the missing digital signature and will recommend to either sandbox or don't run file.

Win32.Trojan.Backdoors / Sefnits / Krypts none of these are digitally signed by a trusted vendor.
Digital signature tab is missing from the file properties.

Windows "verification process" should alert you that digital signature is missing when you try to run these exe files, of coarse it is up to you whether you want to run them anyway. Windows doesn't stop exe files from running without digital signatures because many vendors simply don't digitally sign all of their files including Microsoft.

I'm still waiting for a malicious software with a valid digital signature.

Thanks.

 

[Chiron]

I tested a few no digital signature files and avast did its job asking to run them in sandbox.
Of coarse these files were safe, but checking for digital signatures is one of the best ways to avoid malware since malware doesn't have digital signatures.

Actually, these days there is a good amount of malware that is digitally signed.

Really give me just one example or (PM me a sample) of a malicious software that is digitally signed and can pass verification process by both AV's and Windows. Some malicious software have fake digital signatures but it is easily identify by most AV's and Windows own digital file checker. I'm not talking about harmless adware because yes some of them have digital signatures but they are not malicious, they may have some privacy issues, change browser settings and display rogue adverts, etc. but they will not harm your system.

Many of these digitally signed adwares are no longer detected by most AV's and some security software companies even have partnerships with them now.

Thanks.

Point well made. Most of those I would have pointed out are adware. However, there are still a few out there, such as Stuxnet, etc...

 

[Littlebits]

I tested a few no digital signature files and avast did its job asking to run them in sandbox.
Of coarse these files were safe, but checking for digital signatures is one of the best ways to avoid malware since malware doesn't have digital signatures.

Actually, these days there is a good amount of malware that is digitally signed.

Really give me just one example or (PM me a sample) of a malicious software that is digitally signed and can pass verification process by both AV's and Windows. Some malicious software have fake digital signatures but it is easily identify by most AV's and Windows own digital file checker. I'm not talking about harmless adware because yes some of them have digital signatures but they are not malicious, they may have some privacy issues, change browser settings and display rogue adverts, etc. but they will not harm your system.

Many of these digitally signed adwares are no longer detected by most AV's and some security software companies even have partnerships with them now.

Thanks.

Point well made. Most of those I would have pointed out are adware. However, there are still a few out there, such as Stuxnet, etc...

I have been dealing with malware since the days of Windows 95 and I have never ever seen one single malware with a valid digital signature. Stuxnet uses fake digital signatures, if you right click on a malware sample it will have the digital signature tab on the file properties but the certificate will say it is not valid. Of coarse there are many varieties of Stuxnet, some maybe able to fake the digital signatures better than others. Still I have never seen one that could pass the validation checks by the AV's that use them or Windows own validation check. Of coarse not all AV's use digital signature checks, some go by file hash ID's instead. The reason many users get infected, is because they simply ignore Windows notifications about no digital signature on executable files and run them anyway without checking to see if they are safe.

So if any of you has a sample of malware that has a valid digital signature, please PM to the link to me. I have read posts on security forums claiming that some malware does have digital signatures that can pass validation but in order for me to believe that, I will have to see it with my own eyes.

Kind of like ghosts, if you can not see them then you don't believe they are real.

Good day.

 

[jamescv7]

I've changed my AV and now its Avast on my System.

On this case its really a superb from its interface and features itself. +1 From their FileRep and improvements from the rest of the shield.

From its behavior shield it popups 3 things, I set it to ask so to make sure no mistake will happen when I'm dealing it.

1) Execution of KillSwitch
2) Opening of Firefox followed by
3) explorer.exe in System 32 due to execution of my browser.

Boot up became faster since I installed and shutdown times. Dealing on RAM usage is fine estimated to 30-35k only.

 

[NSG001]

Dealing on RAM usage is fine estimated to 30-35k only.

Wow!!! :dodgy: