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7-Zip: Multiple Memory Corruptions via RAR and ZIP

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Re: 7-Zip: Multiple Memory Corruptions via RAR and ZIP

#41

Post by proactivesvcs »

katastic wrote: post #13
blattimwind wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also common knowledge that the AV industry has a huge software quality and engineering problem ("let's unpack malware and emulate x86 in kernel space, because that never backfired before!").

I've actually heard many people (including one Chrome developer) that they don't even use AV anymore except Windows Defender because 99% of AV break Windows/applications by using non-standard hooks and may even introduce new vulnerabilities with their kernel drivers/etc. https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/02/01/1334219/google-chrome... Honestly, if they can't even stop viruses from infiltrating closed systems like Andr…

"because 99% of AV break Windows/applications"

This statement does not at all pan out in my experience. It is very rare for me to come across broken applications or a faulty Windows installation because of anti-virus software.

Re: 7-Zip: Multiple Memory Corruptions via RAR and ZIP

#42

Post by proactivesvcs »

hutzlibu wrote: post #19
katastic wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've actually heard many people (including one Chrome developer) that they don't even use AV anymore except Windows Defender because 99% of AV break Windows/applications by using non-standard hooks and may even introduce new vulnerabilities with their kernel drivers/etc. https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/02/01/1334219/google-chrome... Honestly, if they can't even stop viruses from infiltrating closed systems like Andr…

My experience so far (helped maintain lots of non IT people's computers) was also, that the performance gain from removing antivirus software (and just using defender) was worth the theoretically less protection.( If even so) Besides, with the behavior of most free Antivirus I could not really distinguish from common spyware. Everything needs to call home these days ... So when friends ask me if this computer is now…

Many of my customers run the common free anti-virus programs and I can assure you that they are not snake oil. The logs and alerts from blocked infection attempts are testament to this.

I certainly would say that most of the free anti-virus is pushy, hungry and generally not a particularly great marketing exercise.

Re: 7-Zip: Multiple Memory Corruptions via RAR and ZIP

#43

Post by skrowl »

chrisper wrote: post #38
withinrafael wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He won't go https, sign his binaries, or enable mark-of-web either. It's strange to see people still playing small binary golf in 2018.

Is there a good alternative to 7-zip?

PeaZip is pretty good and is FOSS

Re: 7-Zip: Multiple Memory Corruptions via RAR and ZIP

#45

Post by mmozeiko »

skrowl wrote: post #43
chrisper wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a good alternative to 7-zip?

PeaZip is pretty good and is FOSS

> PeaZip is free file archiver utility, based on Open Source technologies of 7-Zip, p7zip, FreeArc, PAQ, and PEA projects.

It seems to use 7-Zip and/or p7zip binaries.

Re: 7-Zip: Multiple Memory Corruptions via RAR and ZIP

#47

Post by hutzlibu »

proactivesvcs wrote: post #42
hutzlibu wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience so far (helped maintain lots of non IT people's computers) was also, that the performance gain from removing antivirus software (and just using defender) was worth the theoretically less protection.( If even so) Besides, with the behavior of most free Antivirus I could not really distinguish from common spyware. Everything needs to call home these days ... So when friends ask me if this computer is now…

Many of my customers run the common free anti-virus programs and I can assure you that they are not snake oil. The logs and alerts from blocked infection attempts are testament to this. I certainly would say that most of the free anti-virus is pushy, hungry and generally not a particularly great marketing exercise.

Sure they do things - but they promise real security and protection - which is a laughable claim, when you look at detection statistics. They are not much better than defender. But unlike defender, they themselves act like spy/adware sometimes. Showing advertisement on the desktop etc. and communicating with the server a lot and not for updating.

Oh and my experience with most of their logs is, that they log and alert allmost everything - even when it is trivial as a tracking cookie - but make it look like a real threat to the ordinary user to show what good work they are doing. And especially on older computer really slow things down.

So I cannot recommend them and rather stress the importance of updates and not mindlessly install/click random things. (but with updates allmost everything important does that automatically now anyway)

Re: 7-Zip: Multiple Memory Corruptions via RAR and ZIP

#48

Post by Hello71 »

chrisper wrote: post #38
withinrafael wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He won't go https, sign his binaries, or enable mark-of-web either. It's strange to see people still playing small binary golf in 2018.

Is there a good alternative to 7-zip?

for just decompression, unarchiver has free software implementation of unrar. for compression, use command line (tar -J, zip, whatever) or file roller.

Re: 7-Zip: Multiple Memory Corruptions via RAR and ZIP

#49

Post by pixl97 »

proactivesvcs wrote: post #41
katastic wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've actually heard many people (including one Chrome developer) that they don't even use AV anymore except Windows Defender because 99% of AV break Windows/applications by using non-standard hooks and may even introduce new vulnerabilities with their kernel drivers/etc. https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/02/01/1334219/google-chrome... Honestly, if they can't even stop viruses from infiltrating closed systems like Andr…

"because 99% of AV break Windows/applications" This statement does not at all pan out in my experience. It is very rare for me to come across broken applications or a faulty Windows installation because of anti-virus software.

Your experience seems very limited.

Be a MSP with thousands or tens of thousands of different configurations, all the different antivirus software you can think of, and 20+ years of doing it and you'll see anti-virus break everything you can think of.

AV prevents windows from shutting down. AV prevents windows from booting up. AV prevents windows upgrades. AV prevents windows updates. AV causes blue screens. AV quarantines critical windows system files. AV blocks network resources unexpectedly. AV cripples network performance. AV breaks hardware drivers. AV causes programs to unexpectedly close or crash.

Are just a common list I have to deal with.

Re: 7-Zip: Multiple Memory Corruptions via RAR and ZIP

#50

Post by freeflight »

proactivesvcs wrote: post #42
hutzlibu wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience so far (helped maintain lots of non IT people's computers) was also, that the performance gain from removing antivirus software (and just using defender) was worth the theoretically less protection.( If even so) Besides, with the behavior of most free Antivirus I could not really distinguish from common spyware. Everything needs to call home these days ... So when friends ask me if this computer is now…

Many of my customers run the common free anti-virus programs and I can assure you that they are not snake oil. The logs and alerts from blocked infection attempts are testament to this. I certainly would say that most of the free anti-virus is pushy, hungry and generally not a particularly great marketing exercise.

> The logs and alerts from blocked infection attempts are testament to this.

Infection attempts by what? Scans of phishing mail attachments they wouldn't have opened anyway? At least if they know what they are doing. In addition, many AV have this annoying habit of reporting quite a bit of false-positives based on sys-calls or some weird heuristics, this leads to the situation where even totally legit software, from a trusted source, triggers a warning.

Which then conditions people to just click past the warning, at that point you might as well not even run the AV at all and instead just scan individual files online through some virustotal-like service and teach proper user behavior.

Due to this dynamic installing a good ad-blocker will probably do more for the security of the average windows user than any AV software ever would.

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