Anti-virus software does not make full use of Windows exploit protection features

[Xander]

Source

Krebs checked to see whether various anti-virus products were using DEP and ASLR under Windows Vista (XP does not support ASLR) using Windows'Process Explorer. He found that AVAST Home Edition, AVG Internet Security 9.0, BitDefender Internet Security 2010, ESET Smart Security, F-Secure Internet Security, Norton Internet Security 2010, Panda Internet Security 2010 and Trend Micro Internet Security 2010 do not use either DEP or ASLR. Only Microsoft Security Essentials activates both DEP and ASLR for its processes. Other vendors, such as Avira, McAfee and Kaspersky fail to activate these protective mechanisms consistently for all processes.

{emphasis mine}

DISCUSS!

 

[RyanMeray]

Security software completely fails at security, news at 11.

The AV vendors seriously suck. They're a completely flawed solution to a serious problem and there's simply nothing on the horizon that's going to make things any better.

 

[sapphire_blue]

Very interesting. Nice to know that microsoft security essentials activates DEP and ASLR.