Zonealarm compatibility

Hello,

F-Secure SAFE does not like zonelarm firewall pro, it blocks it when installing.

Why its so? Zonealarm uses it own firewall driver on the ring 0, so i think its safer than WFP based ones, which can be killed easily during boot process?

-seppo

Comments

  • Simon
    Simon Posts: 2,667 Superuser

    Just a thought, but have you tried disabling Windows firewall in F-Secure before trying to install ZoneAlarm?

     

    Also, you could try disabling F-Secure in the main screen, (Turn off all protection), then try installing ZA.

     

    Otherwise, it might be worth uninstalling F-Secure, then installing ZoneAlarm and reinstalling F-Secure, making sure that you disable the Windows firewall.

     

    I actually haven't heard of ZoneAlarm for some time, so I don't know if it has any real time anti-virus capabilities.  If so, then you may find it will conflict with F-Secure and you can't run the two together.  I think quite a few products try to be a jack of all trades these days, and this can lead to difficulties.

  • sepik
    sepik Posts: 2 New Member

    Simon,

    Zonealarm Pro firewall is...a firewall. It uses own firewall driver rather than relys on the wfp. Its so easy to disable WFP based firewall drivers during boot up. 

    Anyone malware coder can disable wfp durin boot up and then get an access to network. I've tested this with wireshark. Zonealarm as a ring 0 can and it does block any connections during boot up prosess. 

    -sepi

  • Ukko
    Ukko Posts: 3,611 Superuser

    Hello,

     

    Sorry for my reply. I am only an F-Secure user (their home solutions).

     

    F-Secure SAFE does not like zonelarm firewall pro, it blocks it when installing.

    So, did you mean that F-Secure SAFE during its own installation will inform about software incompatibility and request to uninstall it to continue the installation?

    If so, I think you should be able to install the third party firewall back after successful F-Secure SAFE installation. Then, it is recommended to use something like exclusions (workaround) for each other solution - Using personal firewalls .

     

    OR F-Secure SAFE is already installed and you tried to install third party firewall? But installation is prevented by F-Secure?

    If so, what does it look like? Any prompt or output about?

    Maybe trouble is only based on something else (executable is too fresh, rare or looks suspicious for detection engines - though it is quite unlikely).

     

    Zonealarm uses it own firewall driver on the ring 0, so i think its safer than WFP based ones, which can be killed easily during boot process?

    Just as discussion between community users: I think that this "own firewall driver" and even just else one solution will add more opportunities for so popular supply chain attacks. So, I am not sure how to discuss safer than WFP based ones or not. My opinion that basic functionality can not be safer. But some advanced things can be.  But about main statement of "safer":

    Just interesting to know - by killed / disabled easily during boot up - does it about Windows 10? Or previous Windows versions? And does it about complete state or one-time? Does it by rootkit/bootkit? Remotely or with psychical access?

     

    Actually, modern systems (hardware) with some built-in things to improve security by default.

     

    Thanks!

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