App Review Avast Online Security vs Avira Browser Safety

[MalwareBlockerYT]

Hi all,

This is my test of both Avira Browser Safety & Avast Online Security - 2 Free Chrome Extensions.



Thanks for watching, hopefully you've enjoyed & I'll see you in the next video!

 

[SHvFl]

Interesting video but in my opinion which of the 2 is the better is probably pure luck. If you check 100000 links the results might change one way or the other.

 

[KGBagent47]

That is a very relevant test for most users who are only exposed to threats through the internet. How is the usage for running two extensions like that? (Chrome has a built in task manager, under More Tools)

 

[MalwareBlockerYT]

Interesting video but in my opinion which of the 2 is the better is probably pure luck. If you check 100000 links the results might change one way or the other.

Thanks & yeah I agree but sadly it's nearly impossible to find a large amount of working URLs which are malicious so I cannot do more than about 10 malicious & phishing links in a test - I have settled on 5 because it's quicker.

That is a very relevant test for most users who are only exposed to threats through the internet. How is the usage for running two extensions like that? (Chrome has a built in task manager, under More Tools)

On my Host PC in total they use about 60k RAM & 0 CPU. Avira Browser Safety uses less RAM than Avast

 

[amir 957]

Thank you for this

 

[Wave]

I am not sure on how Avira Browser Safety works, however Avast use the Chrome API (for Chrome/Opera -> Opera uses the same engine) to register for a callback function for the connection requests (e.g. onBeforeRequest), allowing it to scan the URL (and apply any static heuristic analysis which may have been implemented for anti-exploit/anti-phishing) and block the request if it deems it should be blocked.

With this same method you can block the connection to advertising hosts, also causing the functionality of an ad-blocker relying on a database (which is not as effective but I just wanted to point that out).

Never written about browser extension development before I don't think so thought why not drop in a few small details there.

 

[insanity]

IMO, URL detection is meant to be a baseline protection, because I guess the browser extension probably blocks blacklisted URLs and not always the exploit or attack, so some URLs will always be missed. So it's a little bit like signatures. The malware URLs should be blocked by your main antivirus and those phishing sites could be avoided with some caution.

 

[MalwareBlockerYT]

Thank you for this

No problem Thanks for watching!

IMO, URL detection is meant to be a baseline protection, because I guess the browser extension probably blocks blacklisted URLs and not always the exploit or attack, so some URLs will always be missed. So it's a little bit like signatures. The malware URLs should be blocked by your main antivirus and those phishing sites could be avoided with some caution.

Indeed but you should always use these sorts of Extensions as a backup to your main AV since most AVs have ok or poor URl protection - even the best AVs miss quite a few URLs.

 

[JB007]

Thanks @MalwareBlockerYT for this video

 

[MalwareBlockerYT]

Thanks @MalwareBlockerYT for this video

Thanks for watching

 

[Wave]

IMO, URL detection is meant to be a baseline protection, because I guess the browser extension probably blocks blacklisted URLs and not always the exploit or attack, so some URLs will always be missed. So it's a little bit like signatures. The malware URLs should be blocked by your main antivirus and those phishing sites could be avoided with some caution.

Your main anti-virus shouldn't have a compatibility issue regarding interference if you're using a browser extension for web protection as well, however it wouldn't hurt to use one alongside your primary anti-virus either.

The extension does not always rely on a blacklist for URLs, there may be generic identification methods for phishing/exploits, however it really depends on the extension. From a vendor like Avast I would expect a bit more to be in the internals than a database comparison, whereas from a vendor like Avira you never know.

Nothing is perfect anyway, so there will always be missed objects.

 

[BugCode]

Nice, clear, short, informed video. Thanks!

 

[amico81]

Thx for the test. Both extensions are just a litte component in the main protection. Not useless but not important.

 

[tim one]

Thanks for the test
I agree on the fact that these tests have statistical significance with a huge links pack.
Important to say that the detection is often inversely proportional to the moment when a malicious link is online.
Ultra-fresh link hardly will be detected

 

[giulia]

hi
thank you so much for the video!
but only 5 links are really few
i watched the video , if i'm right you said install all the 3 extension , avira ,avast and ? i lost the third
will you perfom another test with more links and report only the result ? without a video because i know it will be longer to record and upload

again thanks

 

[Fede90]

I'm using avira browser safety and sometimes this addon show me some discounted products. That's annoying imho.

 

[giulia]

@MalwareBlockerYT
may i ask you a question ?

do they work under thunderbird ?
thanks

 

[Faybert]

Thanks for the test

 

[Stas]

I'm using avira browser safety and sometimes this addon show me some discounted products. That's annoying imho.

You can turn this off by going to settings and untick "Show price comparisons".

 

[Parsh]

I'm using avira browser safety and sometimes this addon show me some discounted products. That's annoying imho.

Just disable 'Avira Price comparision' from the settings of the extension