Battle Life without AV?

uduoix

Level 5
Thread author
Verified
Oct 14, 2015
236
I'm thinking about ditch AV software. I didn't get infected since win7 or maybe win vista and i can't even remember last time AV blocked malware. I don't crack games, don't visit warez sites/forums, porn sites etc.. I use Chrome with ublock origin and malwarebytes. Do you guys think ditching AV is good idea or not? i do daily backups on cloud services (onedrive and pcloud) and on external disks.
 

Black Wings

Level 3
Verified
Well-known
Aug 20, 2018
126
You can survive, but it's more uncomfortable. You can use Comodo Firewall with Cruelsister settings + HIPS in Safe Mode.
You can use a program like NVT ERP or Voodooshield, but if you give permission, malware can get into your computer and encrypt your data.
I'm paranoid in nature, I don't recommend surfing, no matter how safe the pages are without a good AV. But it's only my opinion.
 

TairikuOkami

Level 35
Verified
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Content Creator
Well-known
May 13, 2017
2,452
Do you guys think ditching AV is good idea or not?
You will be fine. I do not even bother with on-demand scanning, since it is pretty impossible these days (64-bit, sandboxed browsers, signed exes, etc) to get infected by a random malware, unless done intentionally or by an accident - so lets not forget, that you will be the AV. ;)
 

Andy Ful

From Hard_Configurator Tools
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Well-known
Dec 23, 2014
8,040
With macros disabled for office and JS off at Adobe pdf reader - is there an attack vector that’s uncovered ?
Yes - OLE, DDE, ActiveX, and some others. But there are applications which can block most vectors of attack in MS Office 2007 and higher versions.
uduoix uses PDF Viewer in AppContainer and the scripts are already blocked.
 
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DeepWeb

Level 25
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Well-known
Jul 1, 2017
1,396
I think you can totally do it if you use something like Voodooshield and only run some secondary scanner once a month just to be sure. If you never download or install anything you might as well use Voodooshield (or an anti-exe of your choice) to make sure nothing that you haven't installed can ever run. Or Comodo Firewall with Auto-sandbox. Along with UA, Smartscreen and Google Safebrowsing you got most bases covered. If you use Chrome you already have Eset anyway and it scans what you download and processes on your computer for malware already. On top of that enable Memory Protection and Exploit Protection along with backups covers everything.

So I'm going to agree with you. You can definitely create a setup that doesn't have a traditional real-time AV at the center. But, AVs are so light these days you won't even notice a difference in performance anymore. Why not just get a free AV and set it to the lightest most minimal settings instead?
 

Andy Ful

From Hard_Configurator Tools
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Well-known
Dec 23, 2014
8,040
PDF Reader i installed from windows store.
Great. I was thinking that maybe you could get rid of AV and Windows, by using Chromebook. Yet, if you are using MS Office for productivity, then you probably cannot do it.
If you do not install the new applications, then you can lock your system by any Anti-Exe, SRP, or Sandbox application.

If you are semi-advanced user then you can adopt one of the below applications:
non-Microsoft SRP: AppGuard (paid)
Anti-Exe: NVT ERP beta (free for now), or VoodooShield (free, but paid version is stronger).
Auto Sandbox: Comodo Firewall (free, Cruelsister settings), ReHIPS (tweaked).

Most compatible with Windows and fastest setup, will be when locking the system with default deny Windows built-in SRP, and some Windows policies + safe policies for MS Office.
If you are an advanced user, then you can do it on Windows Pro via GPO, and on Windows Home & Pro via Hard_Configurator. You can also try Excubits drivers (Bouncer, MemProtect, MZWrite Scanner, Fides).
 
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