App Review Shadowra's Big Comparative : Episode 2 - Paid Antivirus

It is advised to take all reviews with a grain of salt. In extreme cases some reviews use dramatization for entertainment purposes.
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Shadowra

Shadowra

Level 37
Thread author
Verified
Top Poster
Content Creator
Malware Tester
Well-known
Sep 2, 2021
2,674
Hi Shadowra do you have a list of enterprise antiviruses that you will be testing?

DeepInstinct, SentinelOne, MS Defender for Business, WithSecure, Cylance, Harmony, CrowndStrike

sorry i didn't get my answer regarding application control.

Sorry I didn't see your question...

It was about weak, it was unknown at the time of the tests.
 

Sorrento

Level 13
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Top Poster
Well-known
Dec 7, 2021
646
Shadowra today :)
 

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cofer123

Level 3
Sep 7, 2021
149
I would like to have ESET back permanently, but they still have issues with their firewall rules. It's been like this since version 16.2 when they revamped its functionality and it still affects both home and commercial products.

At least once a week (usually more often than that) it will randomly block trusted network connections like DHCP renewal, DNS servers, RDP or whatever rules you have defined for applications. The outcome is a brief loss of connectivity for the entire computer (when it blocks DHCP renewall or DNS) or loss of communication for the affected applications. If you don't use an application that establishes a long session connection like Remote Desktop, SSH, or a local server and only browse the internet, you might not even notice it. If you check ESET's network session for blocked connections, there will be plently of entries for the affected services/applications when the problem occurs.

It happens on any of my devices (half a dozen computers) with distinct hardware and software components on different networks and different households. Their forums have reports of this to this day. It's intermittent thus hard to pinpoint, but it's there. Opening support tickets don't help, engaging on their forums don't help, so I simply cannot use it. The moment I remove ESET and use anything else like Defender, Kaspersky or Bitdefender, I never face these issues.
 

superleeds27

Level 8
Verified
Apr 5, 2017
361
I would like to have ESET back permanently, but they still have issues with their firewall rules. It's been like this since version 16.2 when they revamped its functionality and it still affects both home and commercial products.

At least once a week (usually more often than that) it will randomly block trusted network connections like DHCP renewal, DNS servers, RDP or whatever rules you have defined for applications. The outcome is a brief loss of connectivity for the entire computer (when it blocks DHCP renewall or DNS) or loss of communication for the affected applications. If you don't use an application that establishes a long session connection like Remote Desktop, SSH, or a local server and only browse the internet, you might not even notice it. If you check ESET's network session for blocked connections, there will be plently of entries for the affected services/applications when the problem occurs.

It happens on any of my devices (half a dozen computers) with distinct hardware and software components on different networks and different households. Their forums have reports of this to this day. It's intermittent thus hard to pinpoint, but it's there. Opening support tickets don't help, engaging on their forums don't help, so I simply cannot use it. The moment I remove ESET and use anything else like Defender, Kaspersky or Bitdefender, I never face these issues.
Have you reported it?
 

superleeds27

Level 8
Verified
Apr 5, 2017
361

CyberDevil

Level 9
Verified
Well-known
Apr 4, 2021
434
A pleasant result for Eset, though most likely achieved due to some luck. Eset has an excellent signature engine and good system-level web protection through HTTPS/QUIC scanning (which can be further configured, for instance, to block dangerous top-level domains). However, its HIPS is too weak, even though it has been slightly improved, and behavioral analysis is almost nonexistent. While this benefits performance, it weakens protection.

The absence of behavioral analysis in the Smart Security Premium version is compensated by Live Guard, where unknown files are uploaded to the cloud for analysis in a virtual environment. This approach is convenient for maintaining local machine performance but has its downsides:
  1. The cloud verdict requires a wait time ranging from 10 seconds to 15–20 minutes, depending on the sample size and potentially other factors.
  2. The analysis is limited to a maximum file size of 64 megabytes, so many files simply bypass this system, leaving only the reputation checks from LiveGrid as a fallback.

The lack of HIPS is also partially offset in Smart Security Premium with a separate folder protection module, which can also safeguard browser profiles. However, this does not provide full system protection against accidental damage or configuration changes.

Overall, Eset is an excellent, flexible, lightweight, and customizable antivirus that I enjoy using. However, its zero-day protection is objectively weaker than that of Kaspersky and Bitdefender. That said, there are no perfect products—just those that suit our needs.
 

Khushal

Level 2
Apr 4, 2024
91
A pleasant result for Eset, though most likely achieved due to some luck. Eset has an excellent signature engine and good system-level web protection through HTTPS/QUIC scanning (which can be further configured, for instance, to block dangerous top-level domains). However, its HIPS is too weak, even though it has been slightly improved, and behavioral analysis is almost nonexistent. While this benefits performance, it weakens protection.

The absence of behavioral analysis in the Smart Security Premium version is compensated by Live Guard, where unknown files are uploaded to the cloud for analysis in a virtual environment. This approach is convenient for maintaining local machine performance but has its downsides:
  1. The cloud verdict requires a wait time ranging from 10 seconds to 15–20 minutes, depending on the sample size and potentially other factors.
  2. The analysis is limited to a maximum file size of 64 megabytes, so many files simply bypass this system, leaving only the reputation checks from LiveGrid as a fallback.

The lack of HIPS is also partially offset in Smart Security Premium with a separate folder protection module, which can also safeguard browser profiles. However, this does not provide full system protection against accidental damage or configuration changes.

Overall, Eset is an excellent, flexible, lightweight, and customizable antivirus that I enjoy using. However, its zero-day protection is objectively weaker than that of Kaspersky and Bitdefender. That said, there are no perfect products—just those that suit our needs.
Each and every word u have written is pure gold.
 

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