Dear all,

We completed and published the results of the Antivirus Self-Protection Test!

We tested the following antivirus programs:

1. Avast! Professional Edition 4. 7
2. Avira Premium Security Suite 7.0
3. BitDefender Internet Security 10
4. DrWeb 4.44
5. ESET Smart Security 3.0
6. F-Secure Internet Security 2007
7. Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0
8. McAfee Internet Security 2007
9. Microsoft Windows Live OneCare 1.6
10. Panda Internet Security 2007
11. Sophos Anti-Virus 6.0
12. Symantec Internet Security 2007
13. Trend Micro PC-Cillin 2007
14. VBA32 Antivirus 3.11
15. ZoneAlarm Internet Security 7.0

Testing of the self-protection capabilities was conducted manually or using specially developed utilities that imitate attacks. After each attack, the correct operation of the antivirus product (including individual modules, active processes, services and drivers) was verified.

The testing process included the following steps:

1. Installation of an antivirus program on a clean virtual machine.
2. System restart.
3. Verification of the successful installation and correct operation of all modules.
4. Saving an image of the virtual machine.
5. Testing of one self-protection parameter.
6. Verification of the correct operation of the program’s modules.
7. Rollback to the saved image (step 4)

A separate clean virtual machine was used for each antivirus program (step 1). After testing the antivirus product’s self-protection capability based on one of the criteria, the virtual machine was rolled back to its original state after product installation (step 4).

Testing methodology »

Analysis of test results and awards »

Main results of the test:

Gold Self-Protection Award
Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0 (97%)

Silver Self-Protection Award
Symantec Internet Security 2007 (71%)
VBA32 Antivirus 3.11 (71%)
F-Secure Internet Security 2007 (61%)

Bronze Self-Protection Award
ZoneAlarm Internet Security 7.0 (58%)
Panda Internet Security 2007 (48%)
McAfee Internet Security 2007 (47%)
ESET Smart Security 3.0 Beta (44%)
Trend Micro PC-Cillin 2007 (42%)

Failed
Avast! Professional Edition 4.7 (33%)
Avira Premium Security Suite 7.0 (33%)
Sophos Anti-Virus 6.0 (33%)
DrWeb 4.44 (32%)
Microsoft Windows Live OneCare 1.6 (32%)
BitDefender Internet Security 10 (30%)

Brief testing results and their descritpion are available here https://www.anti-malware-test.com/?q=node/22

Detaled testing results are available here https://www.anti-malware-test.com/?q=node/23

and in PDF and XLS files.