WTF is up with Panda Internet Security 2006???

[koocha]

I installed the beta to see if it had got better (the firewall part) and went to run GRC.com's Leaktest utility

(http://grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm)

when I double clicked on it my computer said that it couldn't be found..."yes it can" I thought to myself, but when I looked it had been deleted. Just then a notice pops up from the bottom corner saying Leaktest.exe is a hacking tool and has been deleted! There was a button that said "click here for more information on this tool" and it took me here:

http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_i...?idvirus=41109

As it says..."It is a legal tool that allows to verify the protection offered by the firewall installed on the computer."

I downloaded it again and told panda to ignore it. I ran it and guess what?

PANDA'S FIREWALL FAILED ON THE MOST BASIC TEST!

That has now been uninstalled and I'm back to Agnitum Free and AVG Free.

Just though I'd share my findings with the world.

Tim

[kaillum]

ahh... well I'm afraid I can spot 2 of the main problems there then...

1.. Your using Panda.
2.. Your using GRC's lovely leaktest...

I dont like Panda software.. They offer nothing that free software's dont offer.. but they want to charge you for it..

And Steve Gobsh** is a tw... hmm.. better not continue along that line.. Lets just say I dont like the guy

[koocha]

ahh... well I'm afraid I can spot 2 of the main problems there then...

1.. Your using Panda.
2.. Your using GRC's lovely leaktest...

I dont like Panda software.. They offer nothing that free software's dont offer.. but they want to charge you for it..

And Steve Gobsh** is a tw... hmm.. better not continue along that line.. Lets just say I dont like the guy

Can I ask why you don't like him? Can't say I've had any dealings with him but he seems to know what he's on about (dons fireproof suit)

[TheAnimus]

his very arogant, but knows appears to know all his stuff from what i've read about him? Thou does seam to have a rather large fear of raw sockets!

[koocha]

Don't we all!

Did Panda created their own firewall or did they buy it in from someone? Either way, it's absolutely crap

[TheAnimus]

most software firewalls are koocha, in my view enless your running as a regular user in windows (rather than admin, which pretty much everyone, myself included does) software firewalls can't block outbound attempts if the programmers any good. (and there are some tricks that work in regular user modes too, oh and on linux it tends to be increidbly easy, BSD its harder).

My advice is to get a good virus scanner, theres much debate on this AVG people like as its free. Then firewall wise, zonealarm a lot of people like, i don't have a problem with the default windows one.

if you've got an old computer (you can pick one up in the local paper for £40 sort) then put m0n0wall on it. If you're willing to pay £30 for a years virus, this is a great way to make your home network much more secure, but better than that you can also do bandwidth management (ie put net surfing at higher priority than downloading).

[koocha]

I've so far had no problems with Atignum Outpost for detecting things that want outbound access. If you know of anything tha tI can test it with, please let me know about them and I'll give it a whirl!

[mjhants]

Have 2 PCs runnign Panda and am not impressed. Once they 'expire' will move to another solution.

What really annnoyed me about them was their marketing emails that say upgrade for free..... what it really means is buy the next version and we will give you a couple of extra months of use.

[TheAnimus]

I've so far had no problems with Atignum Outpost for detecting things that want outbound access. If you know of anything tha tI can test it with, please let me know about them and I'll give it a whirl!

Basically, you write a program which invades the proccess of another program (this is known as proccess injection) once inside something like msnmsger, or ie, or firefox, you can do naughty things, because most people set their firewall to trust those sort of programs.

I've got programs i've written that do this, but i don't want them out in the wild (ie in someone else's hands) if your really intrested in this sort of thing, i've got a very badly written tutorial, thats in draft 0.5, on proccess injection, and subclassing forign apps. see http://0bytes.net/startsizer/ That should teach you more than enough to try to write your own applications which can invade other programs proccess and thus there trusts.