AVG destroyed Link Scanner?

Discussion in 'other anti-malware software' started by aigle, Mar 13, 2010.

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  1. aigle

    aigle Registered Member

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    It used to be really nice and robust before taken over by AVG. I was always impressed by its detection and thought it to be better than HTTP scanner of an AV.

    I just tried it yesterday with so many links from malware domian list and it seemed pretty silent. I am really diappointed. Is it just a chance or it really has been almost killed by AVG?
     
  2. progress

    progress Guest

    Have you tried some exploit pages? I read that LinkScanner protected against the latest IE exploit a few weeks ago.
     
  3. lordpake

    lordpake Registered Member

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    Are you sure there were actual active exploits on those pages you tested? I do believe it's primary field of protection is exploits.
     
  4. progress

    progress Guest

    I agree, it doesn't work like an AV webshield!
     
  5. aigle

    aigle Registered Member

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    I did try many exploit pages from MDL. May be there are no more exploits the time. That,s why I aksed this Q.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2010
  6. m00nbl00d

    m00nbl00d Registered Member

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    Yes, it used to be nice, and still is. Yes, it used to be robust, and nowadays is more robust. It also started to work more efficiently for the user after AVG acquiring Expansion Labs. I remember Linkscanner forcing IE to crawl the system. And, it would also take a lot of bandwidth for web masters. AVG improved it a lot since then.

    You also need to remember that Linkscanner is just one other layer of security.

    Also have in consideration how it works. It is not a rating system like WOT, for example.

    For a better understanding of how it works, maybe you could read this http://obluk.blog.avg.com/2009/10/does-linkscanner-scan-links.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+avgblogs_karelobluk+%28AVG+Blogs+|+Karel+Obluk%29#axzz0YXkAJmTt
     
  7. LoneWolf

    LoneWolf Registered Member

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    Actually it was "Exploit Prevention Labs".
    On a side note LinkScanner was once called "SocketShield".
     
  8. m00nbl00d

    m00nbl00d Registered Member

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    Yes, you're correct! Thank you. I don't even know how I brought up Expansion! lol
     
  9. progress

    progress Guest

    Are there any tests or reviews? :doubt:
     
  10. Kees1958

    Kees1958 Registered Member

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    As far as I understand it, AVG linkscanner interpretates the code of the web page (e.g. javascript). So it does not look for malware, but looks for commands which are used to drop and execute code for instance (these mechanismes are often refered to as payload). It also looks at commenly used code patterns used by exploits.

    This means that it does not protect for social engieering downloads, since these are approved by the user.

    Compared to Finjan it is blasing fast.
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2010
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