Serious Discussion Shadow Defender is dead now in 2023?

pvsurfer

Level 2
Verified
Oct 20, 2019
61
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Divine_Barakah

Level 33
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
May 10, 2019
2,289
Perfectly? Nothing I know of is perfect. As previously discussed, Serious Discussion - Shadow Defender is dead now in 2023?, SD by itself has no way to prevent data theft, but in my 10 years of using SD it has never failed (after a system restart) to remove anything and everything that was introduced to my system while in Shadow Mode!
What I meant was, did you actually check that nothing was changed in the system and no remnants were left? Backup software gives peace of mind.
 
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bazang

Level 5
Jul 3, 2024
221
The programme has not received any updates for x years.
The Shadow Defender creator and publisher has a long history of disappearing from support, making bug fixes, addressing other issues, etc due to health problems. In the past Tony (English name; I cannot remember his Chinese name) would stop any communications with the outside world for 3, 4, or 5 years. The, unannounced, he would return.

Some people speculated that it was due to the CCP monitoring Tony but that is not the case. He has serious health problems.

Back in 2021 I saw posts on Chinese security forums that Tony died from COVID.

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No bugs fixes and God knows how many security issues are there.
Bugs ≠ "security issues"

"God knows how many security issues" = speculation

BSODs are an annoyance and are no indication of a serious security problem.

Nobody ever pentested Shadow Defender for vulnerabilities, since Day 1.

All virtualization products are bypassable at some deep level such as firmware or lower - e.g. Ring 0. For a Ring 0 bypass all that is required is to find a vulnerability and exploit it. In the past Shadow Defender and other products (e.g. Deep Guard) did not protect against Ring 0 bootkits or rootkits. Then those vulnerabilities were patched. However, there is no way for virtualization products to protect against malicious firmware. Nation-states love exploitable firmware. The kind of threat actor that would be interested in getting onto Shadow Defender systems does not have either the inclination, the resources or the skills to R&D malicious firmware.

If you want the latest news then the person to speak with is @sdmod over at Wilders. He is the only person with whom the developer every maintained contact - albeit intermittently due to the health issues.
 
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pvsurfer

Level 2
Verified
Oct 20, 2019
61
What I meant was, did you actually check that nothing was changed in the system and no remnants were left? Backup software gives peace of mind.
Yes, I actually have checked that out a great many times over the years! ...and certainly backups are the 'final frontier' for every computer user (I do image-backups on a regular basis), but it is not a replacement for my daily use of SD.
 

Sorrento

Level 10
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Well-known
Dec 7, 2021
470
Uninstalled Shadow due to potential issues, I image with Reflect often like several a week & have multiple backups but I am going to miss Shadow :cry:
 
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Frib004

Level 2
Verified
Nov 17, 2018
81
SD does not prevent data theft because it's not the purpose of the software, that is virtualizing the OS. To protect your data, you need to use an antivirus software. I don't use Core Isolation because I don't see any use of it. SD and a good antivirus running together it's practically bulletproof, except of malwares that infects the firmware. If I have to choose between SD and Core Isolation, I think the choice is obvious.
 

xstarlogic

New Member
Oct 2, 2024
3
Hello all, Shadow Defender to version 1.5.0.726 (Latest) is no longer compatible with Windows 11 24H2. If you're upgrading from 23H2 or any previous version of Windows 11, upgrading will require you to uninstall it first. After upgrading to 24H2. The installer will be blocked by the system stating that the software is no longer compatible with Windows 11.

My only possible solution is to upgrade Windows 11 to Enterprise Edition enable Unified Write Filter. Deep Freeze standard also cause my Windows to enter infinitive boot loop.
 

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