Disabling Active Virus Control - Dangerious?

I have another program I run in conjunction with BitDefender that keeps my internet browser sandboxed. After a recent update with the other program, BitDefender started causing conflicts. The culprit was tracked down to the Active Virus Control being enabled (when I disabled it, it works fine).


I would like to confirm something first: I still want to keep BitDefender running as my real-time protection (I always keep the program updated) and I want it active in order to block viruses or other threats. Will disabling the AVC effect this and cause me to create a hole in my protection that viruses might get through?


Thnx

Comments

  • I have another program I run in conjunction with BitDefender that keeps my internet browser sandboxed. After a recent update with the other program, BitDefender started causing conflicts. The culprit was tracked down to the Active Virus Control being enabled (when I disabled it, it works fine).


    I would like to confirm something first: I still want to keep BitDefender running as my real-time protection (I always keep the program updated) and I want it active in order to block viruses or other threats. Will disabling the AVC effect this and cause me to create a hole in my protection that viruses might get through?


    Thnx


    Do you have Sandboxie?


    Sandboxie reports in its website that Active Virus Control of Bitdefender somehow conflicts with Sandboxie.


    But, I use both with AVC aggressive... nothing's wrong for me... just make sure that you enable the compatibilty option for Bitdefender in Sandboxie...

  • sjurassic
    edited December 2013
    Do you have Sandboxie?


    Sandboxie reports in its website that Active Virus Control of Bitdefender somehow conflicts with Sandboxie.


    But, I use both with AVC aggressive... nothing's wrong for me... just make sure that you enable the compatibilty option for Bitdefender in Sandboxie...


    Actually, the problem is everything worked with Sandboxie 3.72 but when I upgraded to the latest 4.06 version, none of the previous compatibility settings between Sandboxie or Bitdefender work anymore. Only turning off the AVC helps (unless you know of another way to configure Sandboxie I don't, which I'm willing to try).


    Any thoughts? Otherwise, my original question still stands: how harmful would it be to turn of AVC in order to get the sandbox program to work again? I'm I loosing functionality of my antivirus program by doing this?

  • XhenEd
    edited December 2013
    Actually, the problem is everything worked with Sandboxie 3.72 but when I upgraded to the latest 4.06 version, none of the previous compatibility settings between Sandboxie or Bitdefender work anymore. Only turning off the AVC helps (unless you know of another way to configure Sandboxie I don't, which I'm willing to try).


    Any thoughts? Otherwise, my original question still stands: how harmful would it be to turn of AVC in order to get the sandbox program to work again? I'm I loosing functionality of my antivirus program by doing this?


    I use Sandboxie 4.06 and BIS with no problems. AVC is enabled and set to aggressive. My browser is Comodo Dragon. I sandbox it while browsing.


    I think that disabling AVC would result to a lesser 0-day malware protection.


    But since you're using Sandboxie with your browser, then you're already protected. It might be okay after all. The problem arises when you're not using sandboxie (all other programs and devices that you don't normally sandbox). AVC would be a great complement in this case.


    Better contact a support team. Or post a thread in the Sandboxie forums.


    Or better yet, may someone from technical support come in and read your post.

  • I use Sandboxie 4.06 and BIS with no problems. AVC is enabled and set to aggressive. My browser is Comodo Dragon. I sandbox it while browsing.


    I think that disabling AVC would result to a lesser 0-day malware protection.


    But since you're using Sandboxie with your browser, then you're already protected. It might be okay after all. The problem arises when you're not using sandboxie (all other programs and devices that you don't normally sandbox). AVC would be a great complement in this case.


    Better contact a support team. Or post a thread in the Sandboxie forums.


    Or better yet, may someone from technical support come in and read your post.


    So let me see if I understand this correctly:


    The AVC functionality protects against programs or files that BitDefender detects is behaving strangely, so it blocks it because it essentially makes a "judgment call," and is not based on any installed definitions that are downloaded via updates that have been identified.


    So, turning off AVC disables this "guessing" process that BitDefender does, while keeping the real-time protection intact and always running, but it's just based on the pre-defined list (IE: if it's a threat found in the current virus definitions, it blocks it). Meaning I'd still have some real-time virus blocking active all the time?

  • XhenEd
    edited December 2013
    So let me see if I understand this correctly:


    The AVC functionality protects against programs or files that BitDefender detects is behaving strangely, so it blocks it because it essentially makes a "judgment call," and is not based on any installed definitions that are downloaded via updates that have been identified.


    So, turning off AVC disables this "guessing" process that BitDefender does, while keeping the real-time protection intact and always running, but it's just based on the pre-defined list (IE: if it's a threat found in the current virus definitions, it blocks it). Meaning I'd still have some real-time virus blocking active all the time?


    Yes, the signature-based blocking (the on-access setting) will still protect you. AVC is a complementary technology of Bitdefender to block or stop those unidentified malwares (the 0-day malwares) that are already running on your system.

  • Yes, the signature-based blocking (the on-access setting) will still protect you. AVC is a complementary technology of Bitdefender to block or stop those unidentified malwares (the 0-day malwares) that are already running on your system.


    So for someone like me who NEVER goes online without a sandbox enabled and doesn't download or run questionable programs unless I'm sure of the source, the AVC is probably something that won't affect my over security if it were disabled correct?

  • So for someone like me who NEVER goes online without a sandbox enabled and doesn't download or run questionable programs unless I'm sure of the source, the AVC is probably something that won't affect my over security if it were disabled correct?


    It really depends. IF you know what you will be doing online, then maybe yes you'll be safe even without the AVC.


    But, don't totally trust sandbox programs like Sandboxie. There might be malwares already that can bypass them.


    However, if I were you, I would find ways that I can use the AVC along with Sandboxie (which in my case, I have them both without problems).


    Perhaps, try other browsers. Maybe it's just a glitch/incompatibility with the browser you use.

  • It really depends. IF you know what you will be doing online, then maybe yes you'll be safe even without the AVC.


    But, don't totally trust sandbox programs like Sandboxie. There might be malwares already that can bypass them.


    However, if I were you, I would find ways that I can use the AVC along with Sandboxie (which in my case, I have them both without problems).


    Perhaps, try other browsers. Maybe it's just a glitch/incompatibility with the browser you use.


    use Bitdefender's own sand box , which works great only thing is that it needs to be enabled every time you start browser :)

  • XhenEd
    edited December 2013
    use Bitdefender's own sand box , which works great only thing is that it needs to be enabled every time you start browser :)


    I don't think Bitdefender has a sandbox feature like that of Sandboxie and Comodo Firewall. Maybe you're referring to B-HAVE, a technology that first isolates opened files to see if they're malicious. Or, maybe you're referring to Safepay, a browser for monetary transactions online.


    EDIT: I stand corrected. There really is a bitdefender sandbox. I searched it through google. I wasn't able to know about the sandbox because I am running Windows XP which the sandboxing feature doesn't support. :D

  • So for someone like me who NEVER goes online without a sandbox enabled and doesn't download or run questionable programs unless I'm sure of the source, the AVC is probably something that won't affect my over security if it were disabled correct?


    I say you don't want to disable it. Sandboxie is interesting, but you're putting yourself in the situation of letting something in the door and then keeping it corralled. You'd be better off with MalwareBytes Pro and Bitdefender to keep the door shut. The point where you must disable security features is when you know you're putting a bad combination of softwares together.