System Safety Monitor 2.0.0 beta 1

It looks like a new company now owns this program. The website is located at http://syssafety.com/

Anyone care to give it a try and report back how good or bad this new release is? I would assume that at some point when the program comes out of beta testing they will probably start charging for it. Right now there website is so new though so there is not much details yet.


System Safety Monitor, version 2.0.0 beta 1
What's new:

* it's become much more stable due to a lot of bugs fixed;
* most of compatibility issues with other types of widespread security software have been resolved;
* added Windows 2003 support;
* added support of multi desktops environment;
* added support of Windows Terminal sessions (Windows XP Fast User Switching, Windows 2000/2003 Terminal Server);
* new versions of registry module, service module, INI files module, Start menu module.

Changes:

* DLL injection mode was fully removed for Windows 2000/XP/2003 as obsolete;
* for stability reasons the SSM driver stopped to support dynamic loading and unloading in this version;
* the interaction between SSM and its driver was fully redesigned to get rid of occasional deadlocks;
* fixed OS crashing (BSOD) while parsing launching processes' command line in SSM driver;
* fixed calculation MD5 hash for executable files;
* the Services module was removed in SSM for Windows 98/Me version as not applicable;
* fixed crashing SSM in case of significant number of running processes;
* fixed memory leaks in SSM driver;
* fixed resources and memory leaks in SSM;
* fixed bugs in rules management for processes;
* added a lot of GUI enhancements to improve usability.

 

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/4691/systemlldoope5ye.gif

Will gone commercial, so grab a copy fast, also i was on the old website and there's no mention about this new website , kind of strange , don't you think ? Thanks for the news anyway .

 

Hello dukebluedevil,

Thanks for the heads up.

Hello paul,

Not too strange - the old site was hit or miss kind of thing But you're right, it would have been nice for Max to have some sort of explanation.

Regards - Charles

 

Awesome , thanks for the heads up dukebluedevil , SSM is the best !

I'll let you know how it compares with the current SSM 1.96beta , unless someone else beats me to it.

http://www.whois.sc/syssafety.com

 

Thanks, if I have some time this weekend I'll probably give it a try.


Near the bottom of the old System Safety Monitor web site (http://maxcomputing.narod.ru/ssme.html?lang=en) under Misc it says the following:

 

When i tried the link the other day i got a blank page. I retried with Active Scripting enabled, and it worked just fine. The interesting thing is, i normally recieve a Java Script error informing me, but on this site i don't ?

Also the copy i DL'd says this, ATTENTION: This version of SSM will expire on 31 October 2005, not Dec as has been posted in the other thread ?

Mine launches ok, but freezes my PC when i enable Watch App Activity or Apply Options, requiring a reboot. All is well with my PC afterwards, but none of the settings are saved in SSM ?

I've given up trying for now !


StevieO

 

This version is generally working OK on my system - I have so far noted the following changes:

• Only one startup mode is given - 1.9.6 offered the choice of service and user login with the user login allowing for per-user configurations. Now that service mode does this there is little need for user mode.
• New Services plugin monitors Windows Services and alerts when a service is started or stopped.

Problems:

• Services plugin - this needs the ability to set exclusions (ideally by right-clicking on the plugin alert entry) to avoid frequent alerts - on my system, the KMixer (Kernel Wave Audio Mixer) service keeps starting and stopping periodically on my system and only disabling this plugin stops an alert being generated.
• Function keys do not appear to work for Application Activity popups - only the mouse or Esc/Return which is a problem if the mouse pointer is disabled (because SSM is alerting on mouse/touchpad driver activity).

Aside from the new system tray logo (an improvement over the old one), there is not as much change visible here as the version number (1.9.6 -> 2.0.0) would suggest.

 

I'm seeing serious problems with the Registry Monitor plugin - changing one entry (using RegEdit say) in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run causes spurious alerts to pop up for others which can result in SSM removing entries for currently installed software. This is serious enough to require the plugin to be disabled, and, if others can confirm this problem, I'd suggest that those happy with the previous version (1.9.6) should stay with it.

 

Thanks StevieO & Paranoid2000 for your feedback on it. I got too busy this weekend and wasn't able to test it myself. It doesn't sound like i'm missing very much though. It sounds like it still needs alot of work yet. Have you contacted them with this info? If not it might be a good idea. http://syssafety.com/online.html?depart=support

It would be interesting to know how good the new developer(s) are at listening to user's input and how quickly they are going to be at fixing things. I guess I'll just wait for the next version, give em some time to hopefully fix some things.

 

Well I hope they listen to someone reporting bugs and such...after all we are talking about a program that will shortly be payware.

 

The latest build 547 has addressed many issues and now it works flawlessly.

 

SSM Support forum now open for business. The latest version has been working very well for me.
Forum.

 

Its good to see that they got there forums up and running now.

I noticed they have another new version out.

System Safety Monitor, version 2.0.0.548 beta 1

What's new:

* evaluation period for SSM 2 beta testing was extended to December 31, 2005;
* added multilingual-UI support in SSM: added Russian localization;
* added menu items for modules in the system tray icon menu. Now you can enable/disable modules individually from the system tray icon menu.

Changes:

* added "Ctrl-A" shortcut to select all items in the lists which support multi-selection;
* fixed ambiguity of rule type names - added advanced type for rules using advanced configuration settings;
* in registry module: added granular enable/disable functionality;
* in registry module: added registry key group filter;
* in registry module: added "Description" field;
* some minor improvements in the "Advanced Properties" rules editor;
* in the "Application Activity" window the cursor was changed from default to "hand".

Fixed bugs:

* "Close automatically" option in "Modules Alerts" window did not keep the setting;
* "Show icon in system tray" option did not work correct;
* error handling in deferred operations;
* running SSM from shortcut;
* UI fixes in context menu of "Windows" settings: menu items were always enabled.

 

Did anyone have trouble importing rulesets made by 1.9.6 in to 2.0.0? On mine, the rules themselves were imported, but the child/parent dependencies weren't. Had all the apps set to ask me about any child or parent dependency I didn't have specified but those didn't import.
It does seem to take longer to access from the tray than the last version.
Rick

 

So how responsive are they to feedback, and does anyone know if they're giving licenses to active testers?

 

Not sure, just started using the new version tonight. I guess only time will tell how responsive they are to feedback, its still very early.

The new version is running good so far here. Its been awhile since I lasted used SSM so its gonna take some time setting everything up again the way I want it.

 

Btw, have they decided to make the program freeware, without any time limits? Because I see it in the freeware section on certain sites.

 

1.84 appears to be the last freeware version.

1.9 versions were betas with built in time limits, this wasn't disclosed until 1.95 IIRC. The 1.9x builds should all expire by 1 Dec 2005.

The latest 2.0 version I'm looking at states a time limit of 60 days??

 

This is actually NOT true. The actual truth is that there were betas of SSM which did NOT contain these "time bombs" even though they had expiration dates in them. In other words, they continue to work flawlessly even after the beta period has passed. All of these non-crippled betas share two distinct features, which are:

1. Upon first launch of SysSafe.exe, you receive a BLUE splash screen with the number 1 in it (as in version 1). All of the time-crippled betas display a GREEN splash screen with the number 2 in it upon first launch of SysSafe.exe.

2. All of the non-crippled betas did NOT come packaged in an installer. Instead, all of their files were just packaged within self-extracting archives or (in the case of SSM 1.8.9) simply placed within a zip file. The crippled betas are all installed with a nullsoft installer.

That being said, I am trying to confirm just how many of these non-crippled betas of SSM there actually are. Thus far, I have been able to confirm the following beta versions of SSM meet the above criteria (I've provided download links for each of these so that anyone who wants to can verify this for themselves):

SSM 1.8.9
http://rapidshare.de/files/19481519/SSM189.exe.html
SSM 1.9.0 beta 3p
http://rapidshare.de/files/19481555/SSM190-3P.exe.html
SSM 1.9.2 beta 1i
http://rapidshare.de/files/19481597/SSM192-1i.exe.html
SSM 1.9.3 beta 2
http://rapidshare.de/files/19481643/SSM193-2.exe.html

My question, then, is whether SSM 1.9.4 beta 1 meets this criteria and, if so, can someone help me to complete my SSM archive by providing me with it and the original SSM 1.8.4? Please? I think it would be useful to retain a permanent archive of previous versions of SSM for historical as well as research purposes.

 

Hi Maji, I have an available copy of SSM 194. Here's a download link. http://rapidshare.de/files/19502014/ssm194.zip.html
I don't have a copy of 184 though. The earliest version I have is also 189. Maybe someone else has it and will post soon.

 

Hey....thanks for your help there, buddy! I really appreciate it.

Once I have a complete archive of SSM non-crippled builds, I'll see if I can't fire up my old webserver and provide a more permanent home for them than rapidshare.

People helpin' each other out....it's a beautiful thang.

EDIT
Food for thought:

Has anyone figured out a possible way to remove the time bombs from the last freeware betas to make them like the betas which have been posted in this thread thus far? After all, the crippled betas were under the same freeware license as the non-crippled ones, and it is woefully unfair that users like myself cannot enjoy these betas and the benefits they had to offer.

Since SSM 2.x development is moving right along, I don't see what harm could possibly come from removing these time bombs, right? And no, I am not a big fan of "cracking" or "patching" software (especially security software), but this is a special case that I think should at least be examined. Since we can use all of the other betas without restrictions, I really don't see what could be wrong with removing the limits on the remaining freeware betas. Just my two cents.

Note: Yes, I am aware that you could just freeze the system clock at December 31, 2005 and use the betas in question without restrictions that way. However, this leads to all sorts of other problems, making this "solution" highly undesirable.

Any thoughts on this subject would be most welcome.

 

@ Maji

I do not think you will get any support for your ideas in this forum. Perhaps you should ask these question in the warez community.

On topic:

I have been playing around with the latest beta and it really is quite powerful when it comes to detecting application activity. However I´m not fully satisfied with the GUI and at first all the alerts can be annoying, but I guess you need to take time to configure it in the right way. Overall it´s an interesting tool with a couple of unique features not found in any other app. But is it correct that SSM still uses polling to detect registry, service/driver changes? This doesn´t make any sense to me.

 

I don't consider modifying freeware to be the aim of the warez community, Rasheed. All I suggested was that it is unfair that the last few SSM 1.9x betas were crippled with time bombs, even though all of them were under the same freeware license. It makes perfect sense to me that we should have the opportunity to remove these restrictions so that we may use them freely, since they were FREE to start with. If the author had clearly labeled these betas as trialware, we wouldn't even be having this discussion, but he didn't. And then there's the fact that you CAN continue to use the betas even with the presence of the time bombs, suggesting that they merely serve to annoy the heck out of you more than get you to stop using them.

I didn't expect anyone to jump at the chance to modify "ye sacred crippled betas"....just throwing an idea out there, that's all.

As for the polling issue....they have already said on their forums that polling will be removed and replaced with hooking in future builds. When exactly that will happen is still up in the air, as it seems most of their attention is on rather silly GUI enhancements at the moment.

 

Max did turn its development over to the new owners. No one went out of business.
As for the polling, I believe that the only item that's still using polling is services. The other modules are real time.
I don't see anything unfair about crippling the betas. Even the actual release has a 60 day trial, which is more than most trial periods. That's more than enough time to evaluate it. $24.95 is cheap for a security app of this caliber. Show me anything close to it at that price. It's very inexpensive but it's not freeware.
Also, much of their attention of late has been given to making SSM more able to defend itself against different termination methods and the development of the learning mode to make it easier for the average user. That in itself has been quite a project, one that makes the automatic rule creation used in firewalls look simple.
IMO, they're doing an excellent job.
Rick