Any security threat to using System Restore?

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by ams963, Jun 7, 2012.

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  1. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    Hi,

    Will there be any security threat if I use System Restore in my XP system?

    Best Wishes,
    ams963
     
  2. napoleon1815

    napoleon1815 Registered Member

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    I've had them get infected with malware...hard to get rid of too.
     
  3. Cudni

    Cudni Global Moderator

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    None in using it
     
  4. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    If you have malware on your system and you make a restore point you may inadvertently backup the malware. Then if you restore the system with that restore point you may reintroduce the malware. In that sense System Restore can be an attack vector. When I do virus cleanup on other people's computers I always delete all system restore points to eliminate this possibility. This is true for any backup solution so you just have to make sure the system is clean before creating restore points/backups/images.
     
  5. moontan

    moontan Registered Member

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    a little off-topic maybe but since System Restore is not reliable in restoring then it should be turned off, imo.
     
  6. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    Well, I would say it's definitely not enough. On rare occasions I've seen it effectively restore functionality. It may be more reliable in Windows 7 where it can be accessed during the boot process (along with startup repair, etc), but offline images are far more reliable. One problem with System Restore (SR) is most people never pay any attention to it until they actually want to try and use it. They don't know how many, if any, restore points they have or when they were made. If someone wants to rely on SR they should occasionally check the status of their restore points and make new ones at regular intervals.
     
  7. 1chaoticadult

    1chaoticadult Registered Member

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    Yes it is more reliable in Windows 7 from my testing but I don't use it. Like you I prefer offline images.
     
  8. 2YsUR

    2YsUR Registered Member

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    Fully agree! SR never worked for me on my XP machine. I feel much better about making offline system images.
     
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