Malwarebytes (formerly Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, abbreviated as MBAM) is an
anti-malware software for
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
,
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
,
ChromeOS,
Android
Android may refer to:
Science and technology
* Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system
** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
, and
iOS that finds and removes
malware
Malware (a portmanteau for ''malicious software'') is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, depri ...
.
Made by
Malwarebytes Corporation, it was first released in January 2006. It is available in a free version, which scans for and removes malware when started manually, and a paid version, which additionally provides scheduled scans, real-time protection and a flash-memory scanner.
Overview
Malwarebytes is primarily a scanner that scans and removes malicious software, including
rogue security software
Rogue security software is a form of malicious software and internet fraud that misleads users into believing there is a virus on their computer and aims to convince them to pay for a fake malware removal tool that actually installs malware on ...
,
adware, and
spyware. Malwarebytes scans in
batch mode, rather than scanning all files opened, reducing interference if another on-demand anti-malware software is also running on the computer.
Malwarebytes is available in both a free and a paid version.
The free version can be run manually by the user when desired, whereas the paid version can perform scheduled scans, automatically scan files when opened, block
IP addresses of malicious web sites, and scan only those
services, programs and
device driver
In computing, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer or automaton. A driver provides a software interface to hardware devices, enabling operating systems and ot ...
s that are currently in use.
Security vulnerabilities
On February 2, 2016,
Project Zero discovered four vulnerabilities in the Malwarebytes flagship product, including lack of server-side encryption for update files and lack of proper payload signing within encrypted data; the combination of which allowed an attacker to recompile the encrypted payload with exploits. Malwarebytes responded one day before disclosure in a blog article detailing the extreme difficulty in executing these attacks, as well as revealing that the announced server-side and encryption issues were resolved within days of private disclosure and were not outstanding at the time Project Zero published their research. Malwarebytes also published information on how to protect current users until a patch was released. This event also resulted in the establishment of a formal
bug bounty program by Malwarebytes, which offers up to $1000 per disclosure , depending on severity and exploitability.
Dispute with IObit
On November 2, 2009, Malwarebytes accused IObit, a Chinese company that offers similar products, of incorporating the database of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (and several products from other vendors, which were not named) into its security software IObit Security 360.
IObit denied the accusation and stated that the database is based on user submissions, and sometimes the same signature names that are in Malwarebytes get placed into the results. They said that they did not have time to filter out the signature names that are similar to Malwarebytes. IObit also stated that Malwarebytes did not have convincing proof, and declared that the databases were not stolen. After the declaration from IObit, Malwarebytes replied that they are not convinced of the argument from IObit. Malwarebytes claims to have served
DMCA infringement notices against CNET,
Download.com and Majorgeeks in order to have the download sites remove the IObit software. IObit said that as of version 1.3, their database has been updated to address those accusations of intellectual property theft made earlier by Malwarebytes.
See also
*
Comparison of computer viruses
*
Internet security
References
External links
*
{{Antivirus software
Antivirus software
Spyware removal
Android (operating system) software
Shareware
Windows security software
Software that uses Qt
Proprietary software that uses Qt
Security software
MacOS security software