Alarming

Please explain how Process Guard can be such a vital layer of my computer security when it seems to be rendered ineffective somehow without my intervention? The screenshot below shows my window log when I investigated the big red X through the PG system tray icon. It's as though I disabled PG's protection, only I did not. I did, however, manually re-enable the protection.

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~dallen/PG.JPG

 

Hello, Dallen!

It appears from the screenshot that PG was disabled when it started. I've seen this happen twice before myself:

1. I disabled protection manually, and restarted the PC. When PG started automatically upon reboot, it remained disabled until I re-enabled it.
2. A number of weeks ago I had some problems and had to restore .dat files. See these posts https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=36019 https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=35914&highlight=.dat

 

Yep, If you disable Process Guard and reboot it will remain disabled, until you re-enable it, this is probably by intent. We will have to await a DCS response on this.
The same applies to learning mode, except after the first reboot on installation when learning mode is disabled.

Pilli

 

Pilli,
The problem is that I did not disable Process Guard.
Had I been the one to disable it, I would not be alarmed. My fear is that PG either disabled itself or was disabled by something. However, I know two facts: 1)it was disabled 2) I did not disable it.

 

Do you know if one has to disable PG and then enable it again after reboot. Usually when i see this anomaly I just reboot and PG is enabled and operating on startup as usual (from what i can tell).

 

Dallen,

Just to confirm, you are saying that you are SURE that PG was enabled. You then resatarted your PC (for whatever reason), and when it was restarted you noticed that PG was disabled. Is this correct?

 

This happens when pguard.dat gets corrupted/wiped/filled with zeroes. I am working on some things which will hopefully stop this from happening during blue screens/system crashes. Have you suffered any of these blue screens/restarts recently?

 

Sorry for the delay in responding.

Dazed_and_Confused,
That is exactly what I'm saying. I am absolutely sure that I did not disable the protection. I turned my computer on, noticed Process Guard disabled (the red X through the tray icon), immediately went to the log, then took a screenshot. I've subsequently enabled the protection and have had no problems since then.

Jason_DiamondCS,
I have not had problems with blue screens/restarts. There may have been one a while ago, but I don't think that it corresponded in time with this problem and I haven't had any issues since then. My system is otherwise clean. I run TDS, PG, AAW, and my HijackThis log has been reviewed and it clean.

My concern is that whatever the cause of this problem is, there must be some sort of vulerability within PG. If it was rendered useless in this particular case, then it must be susceptible to being rendered useless by attack.

 

Hi, dallen

Have had happen to me many time in the pass. [stopped it now]

Do you bye any chance have a Nvidia Graphics Card or Have TDS-3 and have it on auto start up.

I ask because since I had stopped NForce Tray Options, NvCplDaemon, Nwiz from stating programs and TDS-3 from auto start, I have never had it happen since.

Hope this is of some help.

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

I haven't had a problem with the nvidia programs running at startup, but setting TDS3 to run at startup will definitely cause this.

 

I have a NVidia video card and I have TDS3 in autostart mode. So based upon the above two responses, can I assume that TDS3 is responsible for this. Now let me ask the obvious questions:

Why would two products made by the same company not work well together?

Assuming the solution is to take TDS3 out of autostart mode, how can I get the full protecive capability out of TDS3 and PG? (Afterall, I would like to use both softwares simultaneously to their maximum capabilities).

 

Hi Notok

I am not saying they were the cause just my small offer of some help.

But I stopped them [not much use to have them as starting programs anyway as with office and many more] along with TDS and the problem went away.

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

Peter I agree, TDS3's on autostart in XP especially with all the startup scans enabled is best done with a manul start after everything else is loaded, PG will notice any process that changes
TDS4 implementation will indeed be different.

 

I've had the same problem many times. PG had been running all day and then for no reason it disabled itself. I never disabled it but found the icon with a cross in it after boot up on many occasions.

I won't use it because this keeps happening among other bugs and until these are fixed I just don't bother installing it. I really wish DCS would hurry up and get some fixes released as well as new programs which we have been waiting for for ages.

Dave

 

Hi worldcitizen, You will be glad to know that we will start beta testing the latest version on Process Guard later this week. The new version should address many of these minor bugs.

Thanks for your Patience. Pilli

 

worldcitizen,
It is my opinion that you should install and run Process Guard. Despite the minor issues, I feel that it is a vital layer of security. I'm sure that these minor issues will be addressed in the next version. Pilli states that the latest version of Process Guard will enter beta testing later this week, implying that it will be available soon. This may be true; however, I feel this is little indication of when it will be released because I think I remember hearing talk of TDS-4 entering beta testing back in early to mid 2002. Please correct me if I am wrong. I'm sure that there is a significant difference between the time it takes to release an update and the time it takes to totally redesign software from the groud up.

 

Great news to diamondcs users, isn't it?
I have seen such issue with PG free version. I have seen one time recently with licensed version after a reboot and pg showed (only the first: driver not installed correctly; the others options were enabled shown well)
ZoneAlarm personal firewall, all variants of all versions, has had serious such problems with its database files and never been solved.

Sometimes, users dont know system just crashed since windows restarts itself (enabled option "auto reboot" if crash). Is this the case?
Thx so much.

 

Dallen, Yes it is correct to say that once the beta is being tested by users the release does usually follow promptly.
Regarding TDS4 and the 2002 comments: When Wayne's RADAR picked up the new much more dangerous threats that were beginning to show on the horizon, it was decided that TDS4 required rebuilding from the ground up which has taken considerable research and much development effort, in the meantime, due to the new threats and using some of the research for TDS4 it was decided that Process Guard needed to be developed to fore-fill an urgent need Re. the new and emerging malware. There is no other program like Process Guard.
Meanwhile TDS3 is stiil at the top of the Trojan scanner tree

TDS4 will be released this year as Wayne promised of that I am certain.

Pilli