Ability to Remote Start Scans Minimized

southerndoc

There needs to be a way to remote start a scan without windows becoming visible. It's intrusive if I remote start a scan on my daughter or wife's computer.

Alexandru_BD

Hello @southerndoc,

We just tested this and it turns out the remote command from Central does not return a pop-up on the device where the command is sent. However, the only scenario where this window would appear is when Bitdefender finds an infection/malware during the scan. Because in some cases, user intervention may be required.
When Bitdefender finds an infection on the computer, it usually takes automatic action against it and gets rid of the malware without requiring any input from the user. However, if the notification states that the threat could not be deleted, additional steps might be necessary.

So, my question to you is, did Bitdefender detect a threat during the remote scan? You can check this in the notifications tab in Central.

Regards,

Alex

southerndoc

Bitdefender detected several threats, but the window popped up before a threat was found.

Alexandru_BD

I suspect it still has to do with those threats that were found, because otherwise the window should not pop-up when sending a remote scan command. I tested this just now on a Windows PC as well. I've sent a system scan command on one of my protected devices and no pop-up was triggered by this.

Should you wish to pursue this further, you can reach out to Bitdefender Support and have them take a closer look.

You can get in touch with the Bitdefender engineers by choosing one of the contact channels listed here:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help/

State your contact reason / choose request category, then choose from the available contact channels, chat, phone and email/ticket. Chat would be the fastest way to reach them.

Let us know how it goes.

Regards

southerndoc

@Alexandru_BD So you're saying the window popped up immediately based on threats found before the threats were found? I triggered it while sitting in the same room and saw the window pop up immediately.

southerndoc

I just tried this again. Sitting in my home office on my MacBook Air with my Mac Studio and Dell Optiplex Windows 11 computers clearly visible. I triggered remote full scans with Bitdefender Central's website.

Remote scan on the Windows 11 machine did not trigger a window launch. It occurred without any window popups or notifications at all.

Mac Studio brought up both the scan window as well as the antivirus interface. (see photo)

I triggered a remote scan on the MacBook Air I'm using now. It also triggered the windows.

With the Mac Studio, I triggered a full scan. With the MacBook Air, I triggered a quick scan. Both caused the below windows to popup. A threat was not identified with either scan. Clearly a bug that needs to be fixed.

Alexandru_BD

Thanks @southerndoc,

Indeed, I tested this on Windows and got the same result. However, on MacOS the remote scan command does trigger the window. The difference comes from the distinct architectures and security models of these operating systems. Windows' UAC manages application permissions and generally allows for more silent operations if the application has the necessary permissions. The Bitdefender integration on Windows allows it to perform tasks silently without disrupting the user experience. MacOS has a more stringent security model, often requiring explicit user interaction for operations that impact system security or performance.
The applications on MacOS generally need explicit user permission for certain actions, which often results in more frequent notifications or pop-ups. MacOS's stricter security policies mandate user notifications for actions that may affect the system's integrity or security, ensuring the user is always informed and can take action if necessary.

Bitdefender's Antivirus for Mac is of course designed to align with these security policies, leading to notifications for actions like remote scans to maintain compliance with MacOS's security standards, which require more explicit user consent and notifications to maintain a high level of security and transparency.

There are of course other differences between the Windows and MacOS security solutions, due to varying security models and user interaction philosophies of these operating systems.

MacOS is a much more strict environment than Windows, a situation that has two effects: one is that MacOS does not require the same amount of extensive anti-malware modules as access is much more restricted to any 3rd party (not only including possible malicious apps / files, but the same restrictions apply to 3rd party software manufactures such as Bitdefender).

The second effect is that since the OS is much more restrictive, mirroring the same in-depth technologies available on Windows is not possible on MacOS, due to the limited access provided to developers.

In summary, the product functions as designed on MacOS when it comes to the remote scans command, and this cannot be changed due to the policies and particularities of this operating system.

Regards

southerndoc

Yeah, I won't be keeping this installed. This was a waste of money. I'll definitely keep this in mind when writing a review. You mention macOS requires user interaction, but the scan is triggered without user interaction (other than the annoyance of needing to close the window).