Password protected Uninstallation of Bitdefender products

Agree, also as one of the members here who had a password-protected BD, his child was able to uninstall BD to bypass the Parental Controls.

I'm bumping this because yesterday I found about this vulnerability (It's by definition one) while uninstalling a password protected instance of Total Security, this has to be implemented ASAP, it's unbelievable Bitdefender didn't think about this when making the uninstaller and STILL hasn't fixed it 10 months later after this post.

Instead of changing that to require a password for every UAC action on Windows, it’s far more logical to implement this on Bitdefender instead.

If we ask for something on this section of the forum, it’s not to “find a way around it” and make changes on Windows to fix a security mistake that Bitdefender failed to address, it’s so you can implement this.

Seeing this post, I can see I’m not the only one who can uninstall without password, so this is not an isolated bug; It’s a widespread security error.

LOL, just replied before you mentioned me.

I honestly don’t remember, I think Kaspersky, ESET, and Avast (AVG too)

Kaspersky also implements password protection when completely exiting the AV (A feature a lot of people also requested, but my thread was rejected for paranoid and unreasonable reasons as well)

This post is from the perspective of BD on Windows devices.

I guess if a person forgot their settings password, which would also lock BD from being uninstalled, how would they uninstall BD when needed, via Safe Mode (if that can be done)?

Granted, we're not talking about a password that is password generated and would be hard to remember, so in that sense if someone couldn't remember that password, why even have the option included in the app? This is maybe where a separate UAC could come in handy, in protecting an uninstall if it were a shared PC/notebook.

So in my being single, and the constant Admin of my devices, is the password protection something a family account Admin is enabling, after setting up a family member's BD settings?

Edit: I didn't reopen this thread to stir the pot, but I saw a post where a member mentioned that his kid seemingly found a way to disable BD parental controls, and this thread came to mind. But I do like the "iron sharpening iron" debate by the members here :)

Good reasonings in your posts, no absolute disagreements from me. I did vote up, for this ability 15 minutes after this thread was posted. I also did vote up for your Exit Bitdefender, thread :) So, maybe I ask more questions than have answers for? :)

Bitdefender's settings password option is compromised anyway. I've been chasing a related problem for over a year: Bitdefender, or something, will change the state of a setting even though the password option is active. The setting in question is Firewall, Alert Mode. It will deactivate itself without a prompt for the password. I tolerated this issue until I enabled the setting password option, and realized that it was compromised. That broke my trust in the product. Back to Norton.

It is frustrating. I dealt with support a couple of times and gave up. The forum has been more helpful. To your point, the forum reveals ongoing themes and ignored issues. It does not take much to spoil a good thing. I continue to use BD on my laptop--smaller footprint and resource needs--but was forced to use Norton for my desktop because I need total integrity on that platform.

Hi @SaurikSI,

In regard to the password protected uninstall, as @camarie pointed out, this would complicate the process, but it's something that should be further analyzed by the development teams to assess if it's feasible or not.

Concerning the 'Exit Bitdefender' feature, the security modules can be temporarily disabled one at the time depending on the user's needs and the antivirus protection can be paused as well. Furthermore, the antivirus can also be easily uninstalled and reinstalled, if necessary.

In conclusion, the exit feature suggested at the link above has not been approved for development and will not make it into production, for the reasons explained in the respective thread. When it comes to software usage, depending on its purpose and functionality, there are two perspectives: the user's perspective and the developer's angle. The developer is responsible to create an efficient UI which covers the needs of various user categories and leaves room for customization as well, to streamline the user experience. Everytime he does that, he needs to put himself in the user's shoes and test multiple scenarios of usage. With this in mind, the final product must be applicable to all categories of users. Moreover, if we are talking about security and the PURPOSE of a cybersecurity solution, as a vendor you cannot take risks and leave any doors open. Think of the bigger picture here and the implications on a larger scale. As an experienced user, you may choose to take chances and expose yourself, knowing what you are doing, but from the security provider's perspective, if such a feature is considered to pose a vulnerability and does not meet certain security standards (and this is not an excuse, it is a finding from people who know very well what threats we face in the virtual world), it won't be made available to the users.

Regards,

Alex