Announcing WinPatrol 2008 With ActiveX Control
April 25th, 2008 by Corrine
Bill Pytlovany released a new version of WinPatrol which includes a great new security feature. On increasingly frequent occasions we hear of “zero-day” or unpatched vulnerabilities affecting programs with ActiveX components. In fact, the majority of all browser plug-in vulnerabilities can be attributed to Active X. With WinPatrol 2008, you can monitor and control Active X components. Aside from the Microsoft plug-ins, popular programs including ActiveX are Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime, RealPlayer and SunMicrosystems Java.
There are several options available for viewing the ActiveX controls on your computer with WinPatrol 2008 and they can easily be changed by toggling the check box combinations. The example below illustrates a selection of non-Microsoft ActiveX Controls used with IE.
(Click to Enlarge)
The combination of options for viewing ActiveX controls includes:
- List all ActiveX controls including those not used by Internet Explorer
- Only view ActiveX controls used by Internet Explorer
- Toggle non-Microsoft ActiveX controls on/off.
If there is an unpatched vulnerability, without any fancy tricks, merely select the appropriate ActiveX control with WinPatrol, click disable and “Yes” to the prompt:
(Click to Enlarge)
After the vulnerability has been patched, reverse the process to enable the ActiveX control.
WinPatrol will also monitor your system and let you know when new ActiveX components try to make their home on your system. If it’s not something you wanted WinPatrol will kill the new component before it can do any damage.
See WinPatrol 2008 introduced in its 10th year
Need help with WinPatrol? Visit the Security Cadets WinPatrol Support Forum.
Remember - “A day without laughter is a day wasted.”
May the wind sing to you and the sun rise in your heart…
Filed under Security Related |