protection for browser without disk cache

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by apm, Feb 26, 2009.

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  1. apm

    apm Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2006
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    antivirus are supposed to scan files on disk when created or accessed, but for browser that disabled disk cache, e.g. Firefox, Opera, there is no files written to disk but only loaded at memory, so can on-access scan the files that directly load at memory in browser?

    i tested with opera disabled disk cache but enable ram cache, and set the on-access scanner to scan all files, then download and open the eicar.txt from eicar.org, the on-access scanner does not response. for IE if doing the same thing the on-access scanner will flag an alarm.

    so there could be a weakness for most on-access scanner under this situation.
     
  2. ola nordmann

    ola nordmann Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 6, 2007
    Posts:
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    Ordinary downloading of infected .exe (or similar) will be scanned anyway because they will always end up in the filesystem before you get a chance to execute the malware.

    So the only exception is javascript or other forms of browser exploits embeded in html or other files. If you're afraid of this, you can use an AV with http-scanning. But the most important thing is to keep your browser+plugins updated at all times. Some browser are more prone to exploits than others - but I'm not gonna start a flamewar here ;)

    Also it's a good idea to never surf with administrator rights, and you can also use run your browser inside a sandbox if you do a lot of "high risk surfing".
     
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