McAfee Readies VirusScan Enterprise 7.5

McAfee is offering a public beta version of VirusScan Enterprise 7.5. VirusScan Enterprise protects desktops and fileservers from trojans, viruses, worms and other malicious code. The product is marketed toward both small businesses and large enterprises that use Microsoft Windows NT 4 or greater.

To make this year's refresh more enticing, McAfee has thrown in several compelling new features, the first of which is application specific buffer overflow protection. VirusScan Enterprise 7.5 is capable of blocking overflows from executing code. This builds upon the functionality of McAfee's consumer-oriented VirusScan 8 suite which actively monitors system memory for buffer overflows.

A buffer overflow is a common vulnerability that occurs when applications that are designed to hold a finite amount of data receive more data than they are intended to hold. The excess data spills over into working memory and can lead to the execution of arbitrary code.

To reign in unwanted applications, McAfee has expanded VirusScan's "undesirable programs" policy. Spyware, adware or other programs that pose a security risk can be blocked by category, user's choice, and through 'DAT files' provided by the vendor. A single policy governs every scanning engine; however, each engine can be configured to take its own distinct actions after an unsavory program is detected.

Much like the undesirable programs mentioned above, scripts can present their own security risks. McAfee has designed a proxy-like script scanner that processes JavaScript and VBScript before the Windows scripting host kicks in. Scripts that pass inspection are processed by Windows; others are simply not executed.

McAfee is further securing the perimeter around mission critical information systems by adding support for Lotus Notes. VirusScan now plugs into Notes to scan messages and databases like it does with MAPI-based email clients such as Microsoft Outlook.

In the event that systems are compromised, McAfee has developed outbreak response technology. According to McAfee, outbreak response includes virus source identification and the ability to block connections to remote computers that have infected files in a shared folder for specific intervals of time set by a network administrator.

Additional new features include: selective updating, an alert manager, application error reporting service, and a tool to repair installations. A noteworthy change for VirusScan 7.5 is the difference in how McAfee has chosen to monitor system utilization during on-demand scans. VirusScan will now scale both CPU utilization and IO samples to provide users with more realistic results.

The VirusScan Enterprise 7.5 beta can be downloaded from the McAfee web site.