PG 3.3b and DEP

Discussion in 'ProcessGuard' started by manzz, Jan 27, 2006.

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  1. manzz

    manzz Registered Member

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    On re-boot Procguard.exe (GUI) would not run, no error messages from windows. I disabled windows (hardware) DEP and all o.k. Have re-enabled DEP with Procguard.exe as exception and o.k up to now.

    Have been running the full version of 3.15 for some time, so will have to check on the changes/updates.
     
  2. Gavin - DiamondCS

    Gavin - DiamondCS Former DCS Moderator

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    I have DEP fully disabled too so couldn't be sure of compatibility but once PG is set up it should always be transparent until things CHANGE

    A lot of changes in the newest versions are under the hood, correcting many little issues and adding more protection. Self protection is further increased, for example :)
     
  3. manzz

    manzz Registered Member

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    This appears only a problem with hardware DEP. Have been running 3.3b without problems for a couple of days, so have now installed on my son`s computer (software DEP) with no problems.

    Thank you for adding "Ignore checksum changes", this is a nice addition for the ever changing .exe files of my son`s on-line games.
     
  4. Wayne - DiamondCS

    Wayne - DiamondCS Security Expert

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    manzz, if you're not seeing the GUI then try deleting (or moving) the pguard.dat and pghash.dat files from \Windows\system32\ (you may need to do this from Windows Safe Mode). If that fixes the problem then that should rule out DEP as being the culprit, so please let us know your findings, thanks

    Best regards,
    Wayne
     
  5. manzz

    manzz Registered Member

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    Wayne,
    I disabled PG protection, booted to safe mode and removed pghash.dat and pguard.dat from \\system32. I then removed PG GUI from DEP exception and re-booted. The GUI did not load.......on checking \\system32... pguard.dat (0kb) had been created.

    Best Regards
     
  6. Wayne - DiamondCS

    Wayne - DiamondCS Security Expert

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    Thanks for that, hmm, interesting. Have you tried deleting the .dat files and then doing a fresh install? If that also fails then it could indeed be a DEP-related issue.
     
  7. Gavin - DiamondCS

    Gavin - DiamondCS Former DCS Moderator

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    DEP has 3 settings, best edited manually. In the system boot drive, make BOOT.INI not read only, then open it. MAKE A BACKUP FIRST

    If you choose the following options, then you should follow my guidelines.

    noexecute=alwaysoff - this requires no changes, DEP is fully disabled for all programs and all Windows services. Can be used well, but best not to use this setting for security reasons.

    noexecute=optin - this is the default setting. No changes required, just use PG as normal. Windows applies DEP to its services and nothing else unless specified.

    noexecute=optout - the strongest setting. See my screenshot for how you should configure PG so the GUI will start.

    Warning do not edit anything except the highlighted command /NOEXECUTE=
     

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  8. manzz

    manzz Registered Member

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    Gavin,
    Yes, thanks,..... but I had done this before my first post in this thread, I made the post to inform of the problem. (I have the GUI by DEP exception)

    Wayne,
    To check I did not have other possible conflicts, I installed PG onto a Base install of XPsp2 (no chipset/hardware drivers) with hardware DEP....No GUI. on re-boot.
     
  9. Gavin - DiamondCS

    Gavin - DiamondCS Former DCS Moderator

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    Thanks for the info, this thread now helps anyone else who needs to know :)
     
  10. some made up name

    some made up name Registered Member

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    So that is why I have had no problem on my SP1 machine with 3.2, even when carrying over settings from 3.15 ... I had (hardware) DEP on its default setting! I wonder how many people who had the no GUI problem in 3.2 had hardware DEP turned on fully?
     
  11. Mele20

    Mele20 Former Poster

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    ??

    Hardware DEP is not supported in XP SP1.
     
  12. Wayne - DiamondCS

    Wayne - DiamondCS Security Expert

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    We've isolated and fixed a problem in regards to DEP, it was actually one of the settings on one of the programs used to compress ProcessGuard - a memory integrity option which unfortunately doesn't seem to like DEP at all (we've never had any problems with it before - it's clearly a DEP-related problem). No problems - we've turned that option off, and we'll release a second beta soon. :) I've also contacted the developer of the compressor to see what his thoughts are on the problem, although I suspect that this option may simply be incompatible with DEP due to the nature of DEP protection.
     
    Last edited: Feb 1, 2006
  13. some made up name

    some made up name Registered Member

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    Really? My bad then, as i have upgraded to SP2 very recently and have only bothered to check what setting i had today. Nevertheless, 3.2 worked fine when it was still SP1 :)
     
  14. redwolfe_98

    redwolfe_98 Registered Member

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    wayne, i am glad to hear that you have isolated and solved the problem.. :)

    that is encouraging.. :)
     
  15. Wayne - DiamondCS

    Wayne - DiamondCS Security Expert

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    The author of the compressor got back to me very quickly and has already isolated and corrected a bug that was probably the culprit, based on my findings I handed over to him. He has already released a new beta for me to test so I'll be going through that today, so hopefully this fix should allow us to continue using the memory integrity option that was triggering the problem.

    [Edit] - Yep, looks like it's fixed. :)
     
    Last edited: Feb 1, 2006
  16. manzz

    manzz Registered Member

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    Well worked,
    I only posted due to the fact that windows DEP did not report stopping the GUI (but it did).
    Hope I did not cause too much fuss/recoding.

    Regards
     
  17. Gavin - DiamondCS

    Gavin - DiamondCS Former DCS Moderator

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    True, when it blocks something it usually warns and lets you click to access the settings. I guess this is due to the bug being in the packer code itself (not something in the application) causing DEP to go off.

    Thanks manzz, we solved a couple of mysteries at the same time ! :)
     
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