windows defender issues? & other AV issues?

[Richard Gaskin]

Tom Glod wrote:

 > Hi folks, I'd like to know if there is any chance that the issues with
 > windows defender interfering in the normal operation of the LiveCode
 > engine is something that can and will be looked at?
 >
 > Is there any communication between Microsoft and Livecode inc?
 >
 > Is there any hope that we won't have to put an * beside on our
 > application requirements?
 >
 > Its just not an acceptable workaround to ask customers to disable
 > windows defender.

Panos has found that the issue is specific to Windows Defender's "Real 
Time Protection":
https://quality.livecode.com/show_bug.cgi?id=21604

It would be great if LC were the only app affected by this, so the LC 
team could fix it.  But looking 'round the web I find that this is 
tragically pervasive:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=windows+defender+slowing+apps

That said, it does not appear to be completely universal; that is, some 
apps manage to avoid the wrath of Real Time Protection.

My comment #10 in that bug report asks what LC may be able to do to 
avoid the impact of this Microsoft bug.


 > The day Kevin was here last year for the develop yourself videos I
 > demoed my stack to Chris, but not before the anti-virus (some lesser
 > known security software) totally attacked my standalone stack.

"attacked"? What exactly happened?


 > Are there any other experiences you've had with AV software attacking
 > LC stacks?

I have not previously seen performance impairment from AV software, but 
from time to time I run across AV packages reporting LC-based apps with 
false positives.

The first time it happened I was alarmed, but since then I've learned 
that it seems many AV packages rely on Bloom filters, similar to what 
Google Chrome uses to identify malware sites, and Bloom filters by 
nature are prone to false positives.

So now when I encounter a false positive flagged from an AV package I 
drop a note to their Support department and pretty much all of them have 
been quick to whitelist my app.  In some cases, where the pattern that 
triggered the false positive was in the engine, one whitelist request 
winds up fixing the issue for all LC devs.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com