The use of antivirus has become an act of faith. We all feel safer with antivirus software installed in our system because it can detect a real-time threat and protect against potential attackers. But unfortunately, the antivirus is still vulnerable to certain malicious attacks.
Antivirus Vulnerabilities are the bugs or security flaws that allow an attacker to get unauthorized access to your device. So what are the major antivirus vulnerabilities, and how can you deal with them?
Common Antivirus Vulnerabilities
Local Privilege Escalation
Anti-virus software faces local privilege escalation problems like other software. This can be due to weak DACL (Discretionary Access Control List) that occurred in both the installation directory and installed devices. In the installation directory, vulnerabilities exist in the access control list settings which will be applied during installation. When Antivirus software gives full control access to everyone, anybody can modify the file. Attackers will use this means to replace an installed file with their malicious files.
While installed, software vulnerabilities are caused by service change configuration when assigned to everyone. Attackers exploit such vulnerability to change the associated program.
However, weak DACL has become rare in recent years. So attackers moved to driver IOCTL handler issues caused by insufficient address space verification within IOCTL handlers of device drives installed by antivirus software.
Active X-relates
We all know ActiveX controls are installed in antivirus software during production. But sometimes, it comes with problems either through the design error or memory corruption which gives attackers access to insert malicious inputs into your system.
Engine-based
The antivirus software engine is the most complicated part, so vulnerabilities exist in it. Most engine-based antivirus Vulnerabilities exist in file format parsing.
There are three types of antivirus software engine-based vulnerabilities, which are memory corruption that results in full system compromise, denial of service, and disk space DoS problems.
How to deal with Antivirus Vulnerabilities
Below are easy ways to protect your system from antivirus Vulnerabilities
Auditing a Local Privilege Escalation Issues
Tackling local escalation issues can be done manually. To check whether your files are vulnerable to attacks, right-click on the files and navigate to the security tag. If the everyone group has full control permission, then it’s branded to local root vulnerability. In contrast, you can deal with attackers in installed devices using sc.exe from Microsoft.
For driver IOCTL to handle issues, you can solve the problem through fuzzing. You can also use Kartoffel from ReverseMode to test the security and reliability of the drivers.
Auditing ActiveX Issues
Auditing ActiveX issues can be done through fuzzing or manual auditing.
Auditing Antivirus Software Engine
Since the engine is the most complicated part of antivirus software, auditing it will be a little hard. There are three basic ways to audit an antivirus software engine.
- Source code audit
- Reverse engineering
- Fuzzing
Although you feel safe by installing antiviruses, they are vulnerable to certain attacks. A slight error can give attackers the chance to ruin your system. So the best way to protect your device is to understand antivirus vulnerabilities and how to deal with them whenever they occur.
FAQs
Surprisingly, yes. While it sounds like double protection, having two antivirus programs running at the same time can cause "Software Conflict." They may fight over the same files, which can:
- Create Security Gaps: One program might block the other from updating, leaving a hole for a virus to enter.
- Crash Your System: Your computer may freeze or become extremely slow because both programs are using 100% of your power.
- Miscalibrated Scans: They may flag each other as viruses, causing "false alarms" and making it harder for you to spot real threats.
While free versions catch many common viruses, paid versions usually offer better protection against "Zero-Day" vulnerabilities (new bugs hackers just discovered). Paid versions often include extra layers like:
- Advanced Firewalls: Better at stopping hackers from getting in through your internet connection.
- Ransomware Protection: Specialised tools that stop your files from being locked and held for money.
- Automatic Updates: Ensuring your software is patched the second a new vulnerability is found.
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) and an antivirus do two different jobs. A VPN hides your location and encrypts your internet traffic, so hackers can't "spy" on what you are doing. However, a VPN does not scan for viruses. If you download a malicious file while using a VPN, the file will still infect your computer. You need both a VPN for privacy and a strong antivirus to catch the vulnerabilities in the files you download.
Yes, this is a common trick called "File Extension Masking." Hackers can name a file "Photo.jpg.exe." If your computer hides file extensions, you might only see "Photo.jpg" and click it, thinking it is safe. Once clicked, the hidden "vulnerability" is triggered, and the program runs. To prevent this, always change your Windows settings to "Show file extensions" and never open a file from someone you don't know, even if it looks like a picture.
Hackers find new vulnerabilities in software every single day. If your antivirus is not set to update automatically, it is essentially like having a guard who only knows how to spot old criminals. The automatic update feature:
- Download New "Signatures": These are digital "fingerprints" of the latest viruses.
- Patches Its Own Bugs: Since the antivirus itself can have vulnerabilities (as mentioned in the blog), updates fix those holes before hackers can use them.
- Improves Speed: Updates often make the software run more smoothly, so your computer stays fast.
