Hardened Mode

[system]

What is difference between Moderate & Aggressive?

[DavidR]

One is more aggressive than the other.

Sorry I just couldn’t help myself.

Hardened Mode:

@igor post:3

Yes, the hardened mode relies on cloud services.
If you disable Reputation services in antivirus settings, you’ll see a note that Hardened mode will not work. Unfortunately you don’t see anything if you just unplug the network cable (or simple aren’t online).

• Also see RejZoR’s description on the effects of and use of the avast! Hardened Mode - http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=142172.msg1032485#msg1032485.

So this suggests that if you are going to use Hardened mode, Aggressive is the better setting.

[system]

So Moderate means whitelist is not taken into consideration but programs analyzed & found suspicious are blocked AND Aggressive means only whitelists are allowed i.e non-whitelist are blocked, m I right?

So I guess Moderate will block more programs than Aggressive & could be prob for average users, right?

Can Hardened mode affect i.e block Windows updates?

[Secondmineboy]

Hardened mode on aggressive blocks more stuff.

But on the popup alert is an option to set an exclusion.

There should be no problem with updates.

[DavidR]

@naren17 post:3

So Moderate means whitelist is not taken into consideration but programs analyzed & found suspicious are blocked AND Aggressive means only whitelists are allowed i.e non-whitelist are blocked, m I right?

So I guess Moderate will block more programs than Aggressive & could be prob for average users, right?

Can Hardened mode affect i.e block Windows updates?

1. not quite that simplistic, but generally that is the case.

2. yes there is a a higher interception rate on moderate.

3. generally that isn’t the case.

[DavidR]

@Steven Winderlich post:4

Hardened mode on aggressive blocks more stuff.

Did you actually read the links I gave at that is the reverse, Moderate is more noisy and blocks more stuff, as it doesn’t use the avast cloud it intercepts.

Aggressive checks against the cloud database and this can actually reduce the number of times the Hardened Mode throws up an alert.

[schmidthouse]

@DavidR post:6

@Steven Winderlich post:4

Hardened mode on aggressive blocks more stuff.

Did you actually read the links I gave at that is the reverse, Moderate is more noisy and blocks more stuff, as it doesn’t use the avast cloud it intercepts.

Aggressive checks against the cloud database and this can actually reduce the number of times the Hardened Mode throws up an alert.

Absolutely as DavidR has stated.
I’ve tested both for several weeks each, and Moderate setting is definitetly “Noisy” ;D

[system]

I think naming should be changed as its confusing. I thought Moderate will be light protection & will block few but its opposite.

And I think when excluded the program should be Deepscreened once.

How much time the alert remains before it disappears?

[system]

@DavidR post:5

@naren17 post:3

So Moderate means whitelist is not taken into consideration but programs analyzed & found suspicious are blocked AND Aggressive means only whitelists are allowed i.e non-whitelist are blocked, m I right?

So I guess Moderate will block more programs than Aggressive & could be prob for average users, right?

Can Hardened mode affect i.e block Windows updates?

1. not quite that simplistic, but generally that is the case.

2. yes there is a a higher interception rate on moderate.

3. generally that isn’t the case.

That isn’t the case with both the Modes?

[DavidR]

@naren17 post:9

@DavidR post:5

@naren17 post:3

So Moderate means whitelist is not taken into consideration but programs analyzed & found suspicious are blocked AND Aggressive means only whitelists are allowed i.e non-whitelist are blocked, m I right?

So I guess Moderate will block more programs than Aggressive & could be prob for average users, right?

Can Hardened mode affect i.e block Windows updates?

1. not quite that simplistic, but generally that is the case.

2. yes there is a a higher interception rate on moderate.

3. generally that isn’t the case.

That isn’t the case with both the Modes?

Well to start with I wasn’t saying it in relation to any hardened mode setting. And your question wasn’t asking about either setting, just hardened mode.

Just my opinion, if you are looking for differences between settings - I would say that it is more likely on Moderate when there is no checking against the avast cloud, which depending on the circumstances the file information may already be on the avast cloud database.

[system]

OK, I did a zeroday malware test & the result was little inconsistent.

I got zeroday malware pack of 182 malware from malwaretips. I quarantined the malware detected by scan & executed the rest.

I tried both Hardened Mode.

Now I got the info here that Moderate is more noisy than Aggressive & so Moderate Mode will block more programs than Aggressive. So I decided to first test with Aggressive Mode & the malware that were not blocked, I decided to test against Moderate Mode.

There were only 2 malware not blocked by Aggressive Mode. Now these could be safe files but I didn’t bother to check as I only wanted to test the functions of Hardened Mode.

Moderate Mode blocked those 2 malware but it was inconsistent with 1 malware coz 2 tries were blocked but on third try the program ran.

And again I tried these 2 malware with Aggressive Mode that were not blocked by Aggressive Mode earlier. Now this was strange as now they were blocked by Aggressive Mode too. So does changing between Hardened Modes requires system restart?

By the way, Aggressive Mode checks against Avast Cloud, is Avast whitelists big & good?

[system]

If Avast is password protected, does Exclusion on Hardened Mode Alert requires password?

[system]

How is Avast Cloud managed i.e if a program is in Avast whitelists, its new version is automatically trusted or new version needs to be there in the whitelists?