I found this free Anti-virus through a google search http://www.mxone.net/en/ and was wondering if anyone has ever heard of it here and uses it to protect their flash drive.
I think at least one difference from something like ClamWin portable is this runs in real time detecting changes as they occur, so you could catch a virus loading on to your flash drive right away.
So any opinions of this AV? Does it look safe to use?
Thanks.
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To have real time protection I'm pretty sure it has to register a service and/or process. Considering all the settings that are stored in the registry relating to this, this isn't portable in the PortableApps sense. Its only portable in the way that it just works. Also this could mean it leaves behind Personal Information such as files scanned which when using in real time could mean a full list of your files on your flash drive.
EDIT: Just reread your post and realised you don't state this is portable. Well in my amateur opinion I have to say I don't think it is.
PortableApps.com Advocate
Ok, thanks Horusofoz for your help.
I really need good protection against malware because I plan on using my flash drive on some library/internet cafe and other computers, so I need to do everything I can to protect my drive from getting infected.
Unfortunately I'm a bit of a cheapskate these days, so I have to go with freeware only. Otherwise I may just purchase something like Avast portable AV or even a new flash drive with a write protect switch, which sadly my current drive lacks.
I wonder if you know of anyway I could tell for sure if this Mx One AV is leaving behind a list of the scanned apps from my flash drive on the host computer? Is there some sort of app I could run on my own computer to do some tests to find out what if anything is being left behind? Or perhaps some other way to determine this?
Thanks again.
Your Welcome
Unfortunately with regards to malware protection on your USB there isn't a plethora of choices. ClamWin Portable is the only OSS one I know and the only one currently available in a PAF format. Eventually as the format opens up to freeware there will be other anti malware apps like Spybot. Be careful of what you find out there on a lot of site. I've come across everything from portable versions of Kapersky to Avast and Bit Defender. More often than not these will be infected with malware like trojans (Ironic maybe?) and in all cases these are illegal.
With the coming trend of portable software many sites are releasing portable versions of their AV's however in most cases these leave behind stuff that renders them not portable by our standards, same results as explained in my previous post. I personally would recommend keeping your home pc well defended. I too am a thrifty lad and therefore I'm going to recommend you the same set up I have which gives a good balance of protection, zero cost and minimal resources required.
Ok I use Avast Free Home Eidition as my primary scanner with real time activated. Next I have Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free edition as my secondary scanner (Free version does not include real time rotection but is still as solid). I use Spybot Search and Destroy as an anti-spyware specialist and lastly I use ClamWin Portable running from my portable when I want to scan. With these combined I've never had to worry.
Sadly can't really recommend anything other than ClamWin for your USB though I'm sure others more knowledgeable will. However to test what Mx One leaves behind use Regshot. This is really light weight and easy to use. Go to the Dev test page or search for a portable version of it. Also before running I recommend uploading the Mx One package to Virustotal.com to make sure its clean.
Hope this helps
PortableApps.com Advocate
Great, thanks again Horusofoz.
I haven't installed Mx One yet, but after uploading it to VirusTotal 7 out of 39 AVs said it is a virus. Though it appears it was already uploaded on 11-7-08, so I think if it was a real virus the other AVs would have added it to their signatures by now. It could be a false positive by these 7 AVs, maybe because Mx One contains a type of heuristic virus detection ability, these 7 AVs are picking up on that? I'm not really sure. Here's the VT scan link:
http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/12ef9aec52cdfe9d659e3294040ab8ee
So, most likely I won't be using Mx One now after these AVs detected it, just to be safe. Of course I always scan everything with my own AV and other anti-malware scanners before running anything, but none of them detected the zip file as a virus. I'm unsure now whether it is a virus or isn't, but I probably won't use it.
I usually am very cautious about what I download and have a few anti-malware scanners myself, some of the one's you mentioned as well. I hang out at different security forums sometimes, so I've learned some things about computer security myself.
I'm now looking into other options to help protect my flash drive.
Again, thanks for all your help.
you are submitting an antivirus and see that it is detected as a virus?
To inform you, this is correct, this is wanted and it is designed to be so. Opposite would be wrong. This is also why it not possible to run two antivirus at the same time. Any antivirus contains signatures of the known viruses, so when they are detected it shows a virus.
To have stick with write protect switch, fine, I have one, very old, could not find one during last two years. But then, you cant really use this with portable apps, most of them will not be able to run if they can not write something to the folder they are in. So it will not help too much.
So I assume the computer in the library or where ever has some antivirus running, so you can not have other one running, this will give alarms from both sides endless.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I wasn't sure if MXOne was actually a virus itself. I was only scanning it at VirusTotal to make sure it wasn't a virus in disguise. This has been known to happen from time to time, a website claiming their software defends against malware, but it is actually malware itself.
As far as MxOne being compatible with other AVs that may be running on the computer your plugging your flash drive into, It says on the MxOne website:
"+Compatible with any antivirus resident like for example: Nod32.., Kaspersky.,Bitdefender., AVG., Norton., Panda., Etc."
So the author of MxOne is saying it will run ok if there is already a resident AV on the host system.
Thanks for your comments.
>"+Compatible with any antivirus resident like for example: Nod32.., Kaspersky.,Bitdefender., AVG., Norton., Panda., Etc."
So the author of MxOne is saying it will run ok if there is already a resident AV on the host system.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
>+ It is very small alone it is needed 1Mb of space diponible.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Thanks for the info Ottosykora. It doesn't really sound worth running now. But I have heard stories of people plugging into internet cafe computer that had top name AVs and they still got malware on their flash drive, so I think every bit can help when it comes to self defense against malware.
@ Steve_gutry
Thanks very much Steve. That's some very useful info about the program. I think now after hearing more about MxOne, it just doesn't sound worth running. I'm looking into other options.
Guys, I don't want to sound uncharitable because I think that it is great for you to all take the time to try & help people with their questions.
BUT ---
Would'nt it be better if you try this program out before you give an opinion?
Nighthawk, I made this program portable with JauntePE to test it out. It indeed does what it is supposed to do & it is quite fast.
There are 2 install options:
1. to install on a pc which has a selectable realtime monitor to automatically scan any usb device when it is connected.
2. to install onto your usb device - it can then be used to do a manual scan on the host pc.
By watching the files being scanned it appears to only scan *.exe and *.com files.
If it does any other file types, then it was not obvious to me. As stated elsewhere, it must be using heuristics to analyse the files because of the small data file size.
A word of warning - it gave false positives on a number of standard windows system files and wanted to quarantine them and to then upload them to its website for analysis. (the website is in spanish)