Advice Request Remove advertising on ZoneAlarm free 2018

[eonline]

Hello, I wonder if anyone knows how to remove the publicity of the program. Annoying windows appear. Thank you very much friends and happy New Year! Best regards.

 

[TairikuOkami]

The process responsible is "cefsimple.exe". I would say block it in the firewall, but that is not possible. This is a little concerning, since malware could use it against ZA, by using some vulnerability and faking a process under its name, which would allow it to run and access internet. It is a slim chance, but still possible.

Anyway, you could try removing the whole cef folder, but ZA would probably just restore it. You should try it as the first safe option.

takeown /f "%ProgramFiles%\CheckPoint\ZoneAlarm\cef" /a /r /d y
icacls "%ProgramFiles%\CheckPoint\ZoneAlarm\cef" /inheritance:r /grant:r Administrators:(OI)(CI)F /t /l /q /c
rd "%ProgramFiles%\CheckPoint\ZoneAlarm\cef" /s /q

Denying exe to run should work as well. It is not an essential process, so there should be no issues. Note, that if ZA will be updating, an update might fail, because it will not be able to access it, in that case reset the permissions, update and block it again. There might be other long term issues, if ZA keeps trying to run it.

takeown /f "%ProgramFiles%\CheckPoint\ZoneAlarm\cef\cefsimple.exe" /a
icacls "%ProgramFiles%\CheckPoint\ZoneAlarm\cef\cefsimple.exe" /inheritance:r /remove "Administrators" "Authenticated Users" "Users" "System"

icacls "%ProgramFiles%\CheckPoint\ZoneAlarm\cef\cefsimple.exe" /reset

 

[eonline]

Thank you very much friend. What if I put it in game mode? Best regards.

 

[TairikuOkami]

Thank you very much friend. What if I put it in game mode? Best regards.

I have not tried that one, since the popup is random, but it should work, it works the same way in Avast as well (blocking ADs).

 

[eonline]

Advertising keeps coming out even in game mode.

 

[Syafiq]

I personally won't trust Israeli Products, they're suspicious IMO If you want no ads, you can just go for Kaspersky Free

 

[eonline]

But Kaspersky Free is not a firewall. Thanks, buddy.

 

[Syafiq]

But Kaspersky Free is not a firewall. Thanks, buddy.

Ok, sorry friend. So, you're using ZoneAlarm Free Firewall ? Why you were not using Comodo Firewall ?

 

[eonline]

Ok, sorry friend. So, you're using ZoneAlarm Free Firewall ? Why you were not using Comodo Firewall ?

Because in combination with EAM gives me BSOD. Greetings friend.

 

[Syafiq]

Ok, just use the Windows 10 built-in firewall and add Voodooshield Free version alongside EAM. ~Greetings friend

 

[Faybert]

strange, I'm doing some testing with it currently on another machine and no advertising window appeared

 

[imuade]

The process responsible is "cefsimple.exe". I would say block it in the firewall, but that is not possible.

I know it's an old post, but would it be possible to block "cefsimple.exe" outbound connections on Windows Firewall?
On Windows 10 Microsoft suggests to keep Windows Firewall enable even if you use a 3rd party firewall, considering that:

• to block a connection you just need a blocking rule in either WF or the 3rd party FW
• to allow a connection you need an allow rule on both WF and the 3rd party FW