Thread

1. x-complexity · 1790323340 · focus · HN ↗

   Chalk another one up for "Antiviruses causing more problems than solving them".

   They 'worked' when they initially just scanned files for known malicious signatures. Now they're the equivalent of a sledgehammer to a wall with all of the extra bells & whistles strapped to them.

   Application whitelisting is the remaining way forward if you actually care about runtime security. That & locking every access point down to the bare minimum.

   1. Batman8675309 · 1790326931 · focus · HN ↗

      I'm a firm believer that hardware virtualization is the way forward for security. Qubes OS has the right idea, but running an entire OS for every application is demanding.

      IMO it would make more sense to run every app in its own scaled down VM, like Microdroid for Android. Windows 10 had Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Microsoft Edge, and as far as security goes it was a fortress.

      Too bad they discontinued it, and that performance was subpar. I would have loved to see them develop the idea more.

      1. stingraycharles · 1790327417 · focus · HN ↗

         Aren’t you then just moving the responsibility from OS (process isolation) to the CPU ? And doesn’t this whole thing break with practical realities, such as processes needing to interact with each other ?

         How would you deal with a password manager or a clipboard in these cases, for example, without increasing friction for users ?

         1. Batman8675309 · 1790328955 · focus · HN ↗

            > And doesn’t this whole thing break with practical realities, such as processes needing to interact with each other ?

            There will always be advantages and disadvantages to all of this. But the general idea is to protect the "core" OS, and for that virtualization is superior to anything else you could try really. Android and iOS are already built to isolate apps from one another. ChromeOS uses Crostini to run Linux programs in a VM, etc.

            > without increasing friction

            That's always the compromise with an Antivirus, isn't it? The logical thing would be to build password managers into the OS, or maybe even to handle them differently. As they are already done in Android and iOS today.

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