- Apr 11, 2024
- 45
Hello,
Background
Nowadays, I keep hearing that Windows Defender is sufficient for a home user who is careful about downloads, links, phishing, and scams. However, whenever there is doubt, the usual second opinion provider is Malwarebytes, as it is trusted and has a good reputation.
The problem is that when I follow security news and look at the IOCs provided by security researchers and vendors, Malwarebytes doesn't seem to detect a lot of new malware. In fact, based on my impression (which is not based on systematic data collection), Malwarebytes appears to identify even fewer potentially new malware campaigns than Windows Defender itself.
Sample Case
News about 7-zip vulnerability that is exploited to load the SmokeLoader malware
* Hackers Exploiting 7-Zip Zero-Day Vulnerability to Deploy SmokeLoader Malware
TrendMicro's IOCs of the report
* https://www.trendmicro.com/content/...n-and-homoglyph-attacks/ioc-CVE-2025-0411.txt
VirusTotal report on one of the IOCs:
* VirusTotal
I note that at this point, Windows defender is not reported to have picked up the IOC whereas Avast/AVG, Avira, BitDefender, Emsisoft, Kaspersky, Symantec, TrendMicro, etc. have.
Questions
There are other offline/online scanners that don't require installations and seem to belong to vendors that appear to pick up new malware faster than Windows defender. Why aren't those recommended instead of MalwareBytes?
I'd rather like how fast BitDefender, Avast/AVG, Kaspersky pick up "new" malware. Of those, only Kaspersky has a one-time malware virus removal tool. Hiren's BootCD include ESET and McAfee virus removal tools.
What are your favorite one-time AV scanner/removal tools?
Background
Nowadays, I keep hearing that Windows Defender is sufficient for a home user who is careful about downloads, links, phishing, and scams. However, whenever there is doubt, the usual second opinion provider is Malwarebytes, as it is trusted and has a good reputation.
The problem is that when I follow security news and look at the IOCs provided by security researchers and vendors, Malwarebytes doesn't seem to detect a lot of new malware. In fact, based on my impression (which is not based on systematic data collection), Malwarebytes appears to identify even fewer potentially new malware campaigns than Windows Defender itself.
Sample Case
News about 7-zip vulnerability that is exploited to load the SmokeLoader malware
* Hackers Exploiting 7-Zip Zero-Day Vulnerability to Deploy SmokeLoader Malware
TrendMicro's IOCs of the report
* https://www.trendmicro.com/content/...n-and-homoglyph-attacks/ioc-CVE-2025-0411.txt
VirusTotal report on one of the IOCs:
* VirusTotal
I note that at this point, Windows defender is not reported to have picked up the IOC whereas Avast/AVG, Avira, BitDefender, Emsisoft, Kaspersky, Symantec, TrendMicro, etc. have.
Questions
There are other offline/online scanners that don't require installations and seem to belong to vendors that appear to pick up new malware faster than Windows defender. Why aren't those recommended instead of MalwareBytes?
I'd rather like how fast BitDefender, Avast/AVG, Kaspersky pick up "new" malware. Of those, only Kaspersky has a one-time malware virus removal tool. Hiren's BootCD include ESET and McAfee virus removal tools.
What are your favorite one-time AV scanner/removal tools?
