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Atelier Web Firewall Tester
Release 5.0
Most people rely on their Personal Firewall software to
the point of feeling absolutely safe against all sorts of
network perils.
While experience dictates that the majority of Personal
Firewall software brands offer a degree of protection
against attacks from the outside World, this is not the
greatest challenge.
Are you sure your Personal Firewall software
is offering adequate protection against this kind of
malware?
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The major concern
nowadays is related to pieces of software installed in
your computer which may contact and exchange information
with the outside World without being authorizated and
noticed by you.
Odds are that your
machine is open wide. Some piece of software you have
installed in your computer may be sending private and
confidential data to some place in the World without
your knowledge.
AWFT
probes the protection provided by your Personal
Firewall software using six different tests. Each test
uses a different technique for gaining access to the
outside World.
Techniques are differently rated, according to their
sophistication, and your Personal Firewall is doing a
great job if is able to score 10 points in total.
If your
Personal Fireall scored less than 10 points you may be
able to adjust some settings to improve its
performance. Do it and repeat the AWFT tests until you
are happy. If you remain unhappy with your Personal
Firewall you may, of course, try a different one.
Remember, if AWFT
can contact the outside World without being stopped,
some trojan horse would be able to do that as well.
While AWFT is here for good, the trojan horses mission
is steal and destroy.
We will not endorse any particular brand of PFW. Some of
them can be configured to succeed in more than 50% of the
tests but this has a cost in terms of usability, you have
to judge by yourself and decide how much you are ready to
sacrifice in exchange for more security.
Of course, a few PFW brands will not improve at all no
matter how you configure them.
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TESTS |
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AWFT must score 10 (100%) with the
Windows Firewall, but according to impartial results
none of the popular firewalls passes all AWFT tests
without some tweaking.
You must test within 32-bit Operating Systems with
AWFT 32-bit and within 64-bit Operating Systems with
AWFT 64-bit.
Tests:
One: Attempts to load a
copy of the default browser and patch it in memory
before it executes. Defeats the weakest PFs.
Two:
Creates a thread on a loaded copy of the
default browser. Old trick, but most firewalls still
fail.
Three: Creates a thread
on Windows Explorer. Another old trick, but almost
every firewall still fail.
Four:
Attempts to load a copy of the default browser from
within Windows Explorer and patch it in memory
before execution. Defeats PFs which require
authorization for an application to load another one
(succeeding on Technique 1) - Windows Explorer is
normally authorized. This test usually succeeds,
unless the default browser is blocked from accessing
the Internet.
Five:
Performs an heuristic search for proxies and other
running software authorized to access the Internet,
loads a copy and patches it in memory before
execution from within a thread on Windows Explorer.
Very difficult test for PFWs!
Six:
Performs an heuristic search for proxies and other
running software authorized to access the Internet,
requests the user to select one of them, then
creates a thread on the select process. Another
difficult nut to crack for PFWs!
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NEWS |
February 7, 2012
Atelier Web Remote Commander 8.05 is
available, optimizes and fixes a number of issues. This is a
maintenance release but we recommend you to install it. AWRC is both
the easiest to use and most powerful remote access software you can
find. Just try to confirm.
More... |
February 6, 2012
A new release of AW IP Locator (3.05)
is available. This is an optional maintenance release.
More... |
November 8, 2011
A nice piece of software we had posted
elsewhere. We updated and brought it here.
Random Labs, for
strong password and lotto numbers. It is free. There is also
Went, software to test random data. Free
as well. |
November 5, 2011
Googol+, the Windows Arbitrary
Precision Calculator was posted in another website since 2007.
However, its popularity has far exceeded what I expected, so we
revamped it, added 64-bit native code support and brought it here as
version 2.0 for the prime-time exposure it deserves.
More... |
October 19, 2011
I have been posting a series of
original articles on programming. Some of them very advanced, others
not so, but always in an easy language, or at least I
try. Recently, I started posting articles on Code Project as well,
like this one.
More... |
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