full-disclosure - A suggestion to all AV vendors...

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Message-ID: <200412071550.iB7FoB41017690@turing-police.cc.vt.edu>
From: Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu (Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu)
Subject: A suggestion to all AV vendors... 

On Mon, 06 Dec 2004 19:29:26 PST, bipin gautam said:

> 	A simple yet effective solution would be, for AV
> vendors to (say) add the vulnerable system dll's,
> execudables etc... in a threat list (Refering to
> Microsoft's KB or something similar) And after
> completing the virus scan, suggest the users to
> download proper patches accordingly to threat level
> and directing the end users towards  proper link to do
> so?

Simple, effective, and Won't Happen In Our Lifetime.

Remember - we're talking about a multi-billion dollar market segment
devoted to fixing shortcomings in another company's software.  And said
segment doesn't want to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs.

Repeat after me:  Most A/V vendors don't actually give a squat about
your security.  They are there to sell you products and improve their
bottom line, not yours.  They don't care about your bottom line as long
as your bottom line can still pay their invoices.

The A/V vendors have known for several years now exactly how not to
send "a virus was cleaned from your email by ShinyAV" spam, but they keep
doing it anyhow, just to get brainshare for ShinyAV.  What business case
is there for them to give you a pointer to vendor patches that will close
some of the holes that let the malware in?

(Also, keep in mind that if they don't point you at IE fixes, then when
you get 0wned by an IE hole, they can just say "Hey, that's not a virus,
that's an IE hole, Not Our Problem"...)
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