Gadget Does Not Meet Microsoft Security

If you look at the below URL, you will read that Microsoft believes that gadgets are vulnerable to attack. Gadgets are not included in W-8 and the below link offers a "Fix it" to disable gadgets altogether in Vista/7. I realize we are in trouble if we must worry about gadgets from our anti-virus vendor, yet F-Secure and Norton have eliminated their gadgets because of the vulnerability.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2719662

I am a new Bitdefender user and am a little surprised that Bitdefender still includes a gadget. I turned it off and then installed the "Fix it" and everything seems to work okay. What is the official Bitdefender reasoning for retaining a known vulnerability?

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columbo

Hi baroque-quest, and welcome

IMHO, what I took from Microsoft's warning was that the proliferation and use of 3rd party gadgets being the issue, as some of builders of those gadgets were including exploits in them. I'm pretty sure that since Bitdefender builds and maintains their own gadget (Security Watchdog) that this is not an issue, as you mentioned.

As far as the other vendor mentioned, I personally thought it was overkill on their part to disable even their own gadget, as I find the Bitdefender's to be especially helpful, and would really like to see it somehow be implemented in Window 8. Remember, Bitdefender was AV-Comparatives product of the year for 2012...gadget and all

Kind regards,

Scott

saxel

If you look at the below URL, you will read that Microsoft believes that gadgets are vulnerable to attack. Gadgets are not included in W-8 and the below link offers a "Fix it" to disable gadgets altogether in Vista/7. I realize we are in trouble if we must worry about gadgets from our anti-virus vendor, yet F-Secure and Norton have eliminated their gadgets because of the vulnerability.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2719662

I am a new Bitdefender user and am a little surprised that Bitdefender still includes a gadget. I turned it off and then installed the "Fix it" and everything seems to work okay. What is the official Bitdefender reasoning for retaining a known vulnerability?

I love the BitDefender 'widget' and find it very useful, but unlike the 2 examples you mention which were indeed gadgets, I don't believe this to be a 'gadget' as described by the Microsoft advisory.

If you right click the sidebar in Vista and select 'add gadgets' the Bitdefender widget is not listed. Indeed you can close the sidebar and display the widget, which you can also position anywhere on the desktop in Vista not just in the sidebar which is not possible for the gadgets.

So no Bitdefender have provided a very useful feature which adds to security without introducing a known vulnerability from my understanding.

columbo

Nice follow up thoughts, Saxel.

baroque-quest

I love the BitDefender 'widget' and find it very useful, but unlike the 2 examples you mention which were indeed gadgets, I don't believe this to be a 'gadget' as described by the Microsoft advisory.

If you right click the sidebar in Vista and select 'add gadgets' the Bitdefender widget is not listed. Indeed you can close the sidebar and display the widget, which you can also position anywhere on the desktop in Vista not just in the sidebar which is not possible for the gadgets.

.

So no Bitdefender have provided a very useful feature which adds to security without introducing a known vulnerability from my understanding.

Over the past few weeks/months I was evaluating quite a few AV solutions: F-Secure, Norton, MSE, Kaspersky, Avira, and Bitdefender. I knew from past experience that F-Secure and Norton previously had bona fide gadgets, but recently eliminated them. Kaspersky currently has a gadget; I know this because I looked in Control Panel and saw it listed. I must admit I assumed that Bitdefender had a gadget because it looked like the rest. I must have gotten lazy and forgot to look in Control Panel. Thanks to you and Scott for the advice.

columbo

We're glad to have given you a little more peace of mind about this...and now maybe your search is over, and you can enjoy the excellent protection of Bitdefender

Be sure to consider some of the Pinned Topics on the sub forums, as there is a allot of good information there.