Symantec was revealed to have a security problem this past week (Travis Ormandy – Project Zero).
“This vulnerability is particularly bad—exploiting the vulnerability requires no user interaction. The vulnerability exists in a default configuration, and code execution occurs at the highest privilege level, if not the kernel itself. According to Ormandy, open source libraries used in the products such aslibmspack and unrarsrc had not been updated "in at least 7 years." – TechRepubic
And since these haven’t been updated in so long, and because other Security software uses these, it isn’t only Symantec that’s affected.
Panda Antivirus flagged Sys32 files as malware, and removed them bricking computers after reboot.
Comodo Antivirus has several issues, as well. These have been documented by Ormandy also.
Trend Micro Antivirus has a password manager “bundled” which allows remote code execution. What a gift. A password manager which allows anyone on the net to steal all your passwords.
AVG forced “AVG Web TuneUp” on users which bypassed malware checks in Chrome.
The solution?
MS’s antivirus tools. Yeah. Believe it or not. I’ll be using them, until the AV folks start taking security seriously, and stop taking money for screwing up.
Browse responsibly. Don’t open email extensions, especially if they aren’t from people you know. That won’t cover spear-phishing, though.
Sources:
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/why-antivirus-programs-have-become-the-problem-not-the-solution/?ftag=TRE684d531&bhid=23906934820265111040450294515746
https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2016/06/how-to-compromise-enterprise-endpoint.html