It ran through almost 10,000 files on my C: and came up clean with no
baddies. I was worried it might come up with a lot of false alarms.
Can't believe the thing didn't. That's one of the reasons I left the
paid-for AVs some years back.

Got it at Cnet.

On 11/1/2022 10:02 PM, corky@here.now.com wrote:
> It ran through almost 10,000 files on my C: and came up clean with no
> baddies. I was worried it might come up with a lot of false alarms.
> Can't believe the thing didn't. That's one of the reasons I left the
> paid-for AVs some years back.
>
> Got it at Cnet.
>

You should salt at least one EICAR on the disk.

A text file with the EICAR character sequence in it.

You can open notepad, and copy in the string.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EICAR_test_file

Or better still, get the string from the following Malwarebytes article.

*******

"Why doesn’t Malwarebytes detect EICAR?"

https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/191650-malwarebytes-3-frequently-asked-questions/

There are some AV products, that "think they are working",
and don't detect EICAR or anything else. I happen to believe
it does have value to salt a disk, and mainly because there is no such
thing as rock bottom in the AV industry. I tested one utility, that
definitely did nothing (the disk light did not blink), and
it did not detect EICAR. There were some weird messages in its
console, like the poor thing was lost.

You could also put your EICAR file inside a ZIP file, and it
should still be detected inside there.

*******

If you want to test Windows Defender in Win10 or Win11, try
and download ProduKey and watch what happens :-) Microsoft
calls the executable "Hackerware", because it displays
the license key from the C: drive. Big deal. Defender will then offer
to quarantine the file.

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

Other AV products are unlikely to react at all to that one.

*******

Some utilities have a problem with scanning archive (ZIP-like) files.

There are programs that say right in the documentation "this
utility can only scan to a depth of 13 folders" or similar words.
There should always be a path length limit, but it's a surprise
when you experience a scanner crash, just because you had the
Firefox tarball in your Downloads folder.

http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/106.0.3/source/

firefox-106.0.3.source.tar.xz 479MB 30-Oct-2022 19:18

You don't have to do that, unless you're bored :-) I was kinda
surprised when a well regarded AV crashed while scanning that.
It meant I had to move all my tarballs, out of the Downloads
folder and onto another partition. So that a scan of C: could
finish without crashing. The XZ in that example, is a compressor
(it has a higher compression ratio than ZIP does).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XZ_Utils

Paul

On Tue, 1 Nov 2022 22:29:34 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

>On 11/1/2022 10:02 PM, corky@here.now.com wrote:
>> It ran through almost 10,000 files on my C: and came up clean with no
>> baddies. I was worried it might come up with a lot of false alarms.
>> Can't believe the thing didn't. That's one of the reasons I left the
>> paid-for AVs some years back.
>>
>> Got it at Cnet.
>>
>
>You should salt at least one EICAR on the disk.
>
>A text file with the EICAR character sequence in it.
>
>You can open notepad, and copy in the string.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EICAR_test_file
>
>Or better still, get the string from the following Malwarebytes article.
>
>*******
>
>"Why doesn’t Malwarebytes detect EICAR?"
>
> https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/191650-malwarebytes-3-frequently-asked-questions/
>
>There are some AV products, that "think they are working",
>and don't detect EICAR or anything else. I happen to believe
>it does have value to salt a disk, and mainly because there is no such
>thing as rock bottom in the AV industry. I tested one utility, that
>definitely did nothing (the disk light did not blink), and
>it did not detect EICAR. There were some weird messages in its
>console, like the poor thing was lost.
>
>You could also put your EICAR file inside a ZIP file, and it
>should still be detected inside there.
>
>*******
>
>If you want to test Windows Defender in Win10 or Win11, try
>and download ProduKey and watch what happens :-) Microsoft
>calls the executable "Hackerware", because it displays
>the license key from the C: drive. Big deal. Defender will then offer
>to quarantine the file.
>
>https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html
>
>Other AV products are unlikely to react at all to that one.
>
>*******
>
>Some utilities have a problem with scanning archive (ZIP-like) files.
>
>There are programs that say right in the documentation "this
>utility can only scan to a depth of 13 folders" or similar words.
>There should always be a path length limit, but it's a surprise
>when you experience a scanner crash, just because you had the
>Firefox tarball in your Downloads folder.
>
>http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/106.0.3/source/
>
> firefox-106.0.3.source.tar.xz 479MB 30-Oct-2022 19:18
>
>You don't have to do that, unless you're bored :-) I was kinda
>surprised when a well regarded AV crashed while scanning that.
>It meant I had to move all my tarballs, out of the Downloads
>folder and onto another partition. So that a scan of C: could
>finish without crashing. The XZ in that example, is a compressor
>(it has a higher compression ratio than ZIP does).
>
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XZ_Utils
>
> Paul

I placed an Eicar txt file in windows sys32 and Panda found it.

It says it deleted the original and sent a copy to quarantine.

It's been so long since I used an AV product I never considered the
dang things wouldn't find even an Eicar file.

I don't use AVs. I use a virtual type thingy to keep bad stuff off my
C: I just got bored and curious, and that's usually when we screw
something up. : o)

Panda is still running. It's over 90,000 files at the moment. I'm
gonna just let it go and do it's thing and see what happens.

Good Grief! It's jumped from my C: to my external E: hard drive!

I had to stop it. I have lots of Warez stuff from decades ago on that
drive. Stuff I really never used and has never been AV tested even
with VirusTotal. I don't want Panda screwing around in there. If I
decided I want to try one of those files, I'd run it through
VirusTotal first. Panda would have a ball scanning through all those
keygens and cracks. : o)

I ran it again after placing an Eicar zip into Program Files. It
found it.

So far, it seems to working pretty good for a freebie. Don't quite
know what I'm doing with it yet, though. As I said, I really didn't
need it, but it's a new toy. : o)

On Wed, 02 Nov 2022 00:34:50 -0600, gk@nothere.org wrote:

>On Tue, 1 Nov 2022 22:29:34 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
>
>>On 11/1/2022 10:02 PM, corky@here.now.com wrote:
>>> It ran through almost 10,000 files on my C: and came up clean with no
>>> baddies. I was worried it might come up with a lot of false alarms.
>>> Can't believe the thing didn't. That's one of the reasons I left the
>>> paid-for AVs some years back.
>>>
>>> Got it at Cnet.
>>>
>>
>>You should salt at least one EICAR on the disk.
>>
>>A text file with the EICAR character sequence in it.
>>
>>You can open notepad, and copy in the string.
>>
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EICAR_test_file
>>
>>Or better still, get the string from the following Malwarebytes article.
>>
>>*******
>>
>>"Why doesn’t Malwarebytes detect EICAR?"
>>
>> https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/191650-malwarebytes-3-frequently-asked-questions/
>>
>>There are some AV products, that "think they are working",
>>and don't detect EICAR or anything else. I happen to believe
>>it does have value to salt a disk, and mainly because there is no such
>>thing as rock bottom in the AV industry. I tested one utility, that
>>definitely did nothing (the disk light did not blink), and
>>it did not detect EICAR. There were some weird messages in its
>>console, like the poor thing was lost.
>>
>>You could also put your EICAR file inside a ZIP file, and it
>>should still be detected inside there.
>>
>>*******
>>
>>If you want to test Windows Defender in Win10 or Win11, try
>>and download ProduKey and watch what happens :-) Microsoft
>>calls the executable "Hackerware", because it displays
>>the license key from the C: drive. Big deal. Defender will then offer
>>to quarantine the file.
>>
>>https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html
>>
>>Other AV products are unlikely to react at all to that one.
>>
>>*******
>>
>>Some utilities have a problem with scanning archive (ZIP-like) files.
>>
>>There are programs that say right in the documentation "this
>>utility can only scan to a depth of 13 folders" or similar words.
>>There should always be a path length limit, but it's a surprise
>>when you experience a scanner crash, just because you had the
>>Firefox tarball in your Downloads folder.
>>
>>http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/106.0.3/source/
>>
>> firefox-106.0.3.source.tar.xz 479MB 30-Oct-2022 19:18
>>
>>You don't have to do that, unless you're bored :-) I was kinda
>>surprised when a well regarded AV crashed while scanning that.
>>It meant I had to move all my tarballs, out of the Downloads
>>folder and onto another partition. So that a scan of C: could
>>finish without crashing. The XZ in that example, is a compressor
>>(it has a higher compression ratio than ZIP does).
>>
>>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XZ_Utils
>>
>> Paul
>
>
>I placed an Eicar txt file in windows sys32 and Panda found it.
>
>It says it deleted the original and sent a copy to quarantine.
>
>It's been so long since I used an AV product I never considered the
>dang things wouldn't find even an Eicar file.
>
>I don't use AVs. I use a virtual type thingy to keep bad stuff off my
>C: I just got bored and curious, and that's usually when we screw
>something up. : o)
>
>Panda is still running. It's over 90,000 files at the moment. I'm
>gonna just let it go and do it's thing and see what happens.
>
>Good Grief! It's jumped from my C: to my external E: hard drive!
>
>I had to stop it. I have lots of Warez stuff from decades ago on that
>drive. Stuff I really never used and has never been AV tested even
>with VirusTotal. I don't want Panda screwing around in there. If I
>decided I want to try one of those files, I'd run it through
>VirusTotal first. Panda would have a ball scanning through all those
>keygens and cracks. : o)
>
>I ran it again after placing an Eicar zip into Program Files. It
>found it.
>
>So far, it seems to working pretty good for a freebie. Don't quite
>know what I'm doing with it yet, though. As I said, I really didn't
>need it, but it's a new toy. : o)

gk post was from me, corky. Screwed up. Used the wrong news
reeader/poster. ; o(

On 07:35 2 Nov 2022, corky@here.now.com said:
>>
>>
>>I placed an Eicar txt file in windows sys32 and Panda found it.
>>
>>It says it deleted the original and sent a copy to quarantine.
>>
>>It's been so long since I used an AV product I never considered the
>>dang things wouldn't find even an Eicar file.
>>
>>I don't use AVs. I use a virtual type thingy to keep bad stuff off
>>my C: I just got bored and curious, and that's usually when we screw
>>something up. : o)
>>
>>Panda is still running. It's over 90,000 files at the moment. I'm
>>gonna just let it go and do it's thing and see what happens.
>>
>>Good Grief! It's jumped from my C: to my external E: hard drive!
>>
>>I had to stop it. I have lots of Warez stuff from decades ago on
>>that drive. Stuff I really never used and has never been AV tested
>>even with VirusTotal. I don't want Panda screwing around in there.
>>If I decided I want to try one of those files, I'd run it through
>>VirusTotal first. Panda would have a ball scanning through all those
>>keygens and cracks. : o)
>>
>>I ran it again after placing an Eicar zip into Program Files. It
>>found it.
>>
>>So far, it seems to working pretty good for a freebie. Don't quite
>>know what I'm doing with it yet, though. As I said, I really didn't
>>need it, but it's a new toy. : o)
>
> gk post was from me, corky. Screwed up. Used the wrong news
> reeader/poster. ; o(

PC Mag has several reservations about Free Panda AV which you may be
interested in:

https://uk.pcmag.com/antivirus/35064/panda-free-antivirus

"Pamela" <pamela.private.mailbox@gmail.com> wrote

| PC Mag has several reservations about Free Panda AV which you may be
| interested in:
| | https://uk.pcmag.com/antivirus/35064/panda-free-antivirus
|

Personally I wouldn't want AV trying to do all those
extra things. It's AV. People want it to save them from
having to think about anything. Corky has expressed
that himself. He can't be bothered to understand it or
deal with it.

AV software providing VPN? No, thanks. And why does
no one mention "cloud". Obviously this kind of software
is not running remotely. But what "cloud-based" means is
that the program will be connecting remotely while running.
Why would anyone want that? If you care about security
then why allow access to your entire system to a software
company? There are non-cloud AV programs.

Between that and the VPN, a company like Panda could
be making a lot of money selling personal data. And what if
the company gets hacked? You've given them a backdoor
key to the city, so you share whatever risk their servers
have.