FF-3b3 - turning off virus scanner

Discussion about official Mozilla Firefox builds
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Stifu
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Post by Stifu »

ColeTrickle wrote:I don't get it. I downloaded files, but it never scans for viruses. I know people don't like this feature but i like it but i can't spot it working. Not even a millisecond i see "scanning". i have antivir installed so it should scan right?

Did you try with big files, like, 100 MB or more ?
pip22
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Post by pip22 »

pikaunforgiven wrote:i doubt that is the problem, many people dont have windows defender installed since its not in windows update (you have to get it elsewhere). i know i sure dont. its part of the problem, but not the problem as a whole.


Not so. I've been to Windows Upate regularly and it always offers me 'Windows Defender' along with other critical updates -- but I always de-select it since I've never seen a good word about it. I'f you're referring to Windows automatic update feature, however, I apologise since that might not download it -- dunno 'cos I prefer manual updating.
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LoudNoise
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Post by LoudNoise »

ColeTrickle wrote:I don't get it. I downloaded files, but it never scans for viruses. I know people don't like this feature but i like it but i can't spot it working. Not even a millisecond i see "scanning". i have antivir installed so it should scan right?


Also, are you using windows?
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ColeTrickle
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Post by ColeTrickle »

Stifu wrote:
ColeTrickle wrote:I don't get it. I downloaded files, but it never scans for viruses. I know people don't like this feature but i like it but i can't spot it working. Not even a millisecond i see "scanning". i have antivir installed so it should scan right?

Did you try with big files, like, 100 MB or more ?


More like 10ish, isn't that big enough to see it scanning even for a split second?

LoudNoise wrote:
ColeTrickle wrote:I don't get it. I downloaded files, but it never scans for viruses. I know people don't like this feature but i like it but i can't spot it working. Not even a millisecond i see "scanning". i have antivir installed so it should scan right?


Also, are you using windows?

yes, i am.
pikaunforgiven
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Post by pikaunforgiven »

pip22 wrote:
pikaunforgiven wrote:i doubt that is the problem, many people dont have windows defender installed since its not in windows update (you have to get it elsewhere). i know i sure dont. its part of the problem, but not the problem as a whole.


Not so. I've been to Windows Upate regularly and it always offers me 'Windows Defender' along with other critical updates -- but I always de-select it since I've never seen a good word about it. I'f you're referring to Windows automatic update feature, however, I apologise since that might not download it -- dunno 'cos I prefer manual updating.


i used to go to windows update monthly (for patch tuesday of course) and not once have i been offered it. im running windows xp sp3 RC1 or whatever, it didnt offer with SP2 either. i use windizupdate now but thats a different story.
i think i might actually get it though, just to see how bad it affects this "bug" or "feature" or whatever you want to call it.
Racer
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Post by Racer »

In the past, most AV software hooked into IE to scan the file, but didn't do this for Firefox. I don't know if this has changed recently. Its possible the AV simply scans every new file as it is created on the computer, which would cause a dual scan.
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Fuziwuzi
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Post by Fuziwuzi »

I downloaded a 700MB file, the resulting virus scan was still very quick, I had to be looking at the download window to even see the brief flash that it was scanning. I'm not using a new super-powered computer, either (look at my signature for details), and have AVG Pro running resident, along with Windows Defender resident.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9b3pre) Gecko/2008010805 Firefox/3.0b3pre ID:2008010805
Win7-64 Ultimate, Core2Duo E6700, 2GB PC3200 DDR ram, ATI HD4650 graphics.
DeathWolf
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Post by DeathWolf »

Racer wrote:In the past, most AV software hooked into IE to scan the file, but didn't do this for Firefox. I don't know if this has changed recently. Its possible the AV simply scans every new file as it is created on the computer, which would cause a dual scan.


This is clearly not the case here. It happens regardless of the AV. And my AV is not even running as a resident scanner(ie, I start it manually when I need it).
But FF does have all the downloads scanned through it.
DeathWolf
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Post by DeathWolf »

On a side note, I do not know if anyone can confirm this, it might be AV related, but it's extremely annoying:
When a download finishes, and is being scanned, and the download window is open, sometimes the status stays freezed on scanning despite the scanning being done.
It's extremely irritating as it forces one to close the download window and reopen it to see the status change back and be able to modify the list.
DeathWolf
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Post by DeathWolf »

Sorry to post for a third time, but this is yet again another info.
The download scanner ( http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source ... canner.cpp ) uses the IOfficeAntiVirus interface, which is basically the api for ie&office for document scanning.
A simple way to make sure that firefox does not scan your files, is to disable this interface, which is implemented by <insert>.
Of course that will disable globally that interface, so use at your own risk, and only if, like me, you only use your antivirus to manually scan files when you deem necessary.

Here's instructions on how to disable it(use at your own risk, though, it should be safe):
Start regedit:
1-Search for instances of {56FFCC30-D398-11d0-B2AE-00A0C908FA49} (which is the uid for IOfficeAntiVirus)
They should be in a key called Implemented Categories, in a clsid key in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\
Example, for AVG free: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B64263D2-8A70-4f86-BC9A-57BE9A7B66DD}\Implemented Categories
2-Rename that Implemented Categories to something else
3-Repeat if you have multiple antivirus implementing it
4-Restart firefox

Your FF should now not have been able to find the interface, and should completly skip the scanning from now on.
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the-edmeister
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Post by the-edmeister »

DeathWolf,
Don't apologize for posting new information!

That is what I love about LXR/Mozilla documentation, the comments "spell things out". Starting with line #47, it looks like Firefox is tapping into a system that is present in Windows versions above NT4/Win95 along with IE5 or higher being installed (reminds me of some of John Haller's early work with Firefox and Win95) - I don't understand what is written about IAttachmentExecute as it pertains to WinXP Sp2 and ? Windows 2000, but I guess that isn't important for our purposes.

See lines #88 and #169 of that LXR page.
So could the answer to turning off that scan in Firefox be - creating a new preference called browser.download.antivirus.dontclean and setting that to True?
http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/ident? ... _DONTCLEAN

Who's gonna try that out, and test it?
I set that new pref, but don't have the time tonight to do any testing downloads.


Ed
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Wildmyron
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Post by Wildmyron »

the-edmeister wrote:See lines #88 and #169 of that LXR page.
So could the answer to turning off that scan in Firefox be - creating a new preference called browser.download.antivirus.dontclean and setting that to True?
http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/ident? ... _DONTCLEAN

Following that through, it's used to set a readonly flag

Code: Select all

 88 #define PREF_BDA_DONTCLEAN "browser.download.antivirus.dontclean"
...
169     rv = pref->GetBoolPref(PREF_BDA_DONTCLEAN, &mIsReadOnlyRequest);
...
251   info.fReadOnlyRequest = mIsReadOnlyRequest;

|info| is a MSOAVINFO Struct (see MSDN reference ) where the fReadOnlyRequest field determines if the file should be opened read only by the antivir service.

IOW it will scan but it can't delete / quarantine if it finds a virus.
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ehume
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Post by ehume »

The automatic scan slows my system down, too.

Too bad the pref doesn't work. I copied browser.download.antivirus.dontclean from the-edmeister's post, made it a new Boolean pref in about:config, set it to true. Even after a fx3 restart, the download still autoscans. Boo. Hiss.
Firefox: Sic transit gloria mundi.
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the-edmeister
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Post by the-edmeister »

Wildmyron,
Thanks for pointing that out.

ehume,
Thanks for testing that out, are you running an AV program?

I haven't installed an AV program since I did a clean install of W2K the week of Thanksgiving, so my question is - what is 3.0b3 using to run the scan? If it is just doing a circle-jerk, why doesn't give some indication that it's not really accomplishing anything?


Ed
A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Mine has wandered off and I'm out looking for it.
DeathWolf
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Post by DeathWolf »

That preference is only to tell the AV to not clean the file if it has a virus(and only warn). It'll not disable the scanning.
Check my previous post if you really want to disable the scan the hard way:)
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