question about Defender Pro

[Guest]

[grayhair]

   I recently uninstalled Defender Pro from one of my computers.  I was happy with the job it was doing, but I ran Baseline Security from Microsoft, and discovered that the DF program had established a hidden user (with administrative rights) on my computer.  After uninstall the user profile was gone.  I emailed DF about this but never did hear back.  Anyone have any ideas/comments?

[LeoniAquila]

Hi there, welcome to the forums!

Did you notice any other kind of suspicious activity, like firewall alerts? I looked briefly at their website, it looks convincing with all those awards. But of course, one can seldom be completely sure.

/LA

[grayhair]

   No, nothing unusual.  I thought the product worked okay.  It just bothered me that an administrative user profile was set up without my knowledge.  At the login in page (XP) this mystery profile was not listed, nor could it be found when logging on as Administrator.  It only showed up when I did a Microsoft Baseline Security scan.   Defender Pro did not cost me much, so I removed it. The mystery profile disappeared with DF.  Just curious as to why DF found it necessary to do this.

[LeoniAquila]

Smoke without fire I hope. It's a strange thing you're describing, I think. Have never heard of such a thing.

Now, if you didn't notice (in your firewall) any kind of suspicious network activity from Defender Pro, I wouldn't worry. Except for the fact that you may have permitted the program to get definition updates via the Internet? Anyhow, now you've uninstalled it, I hope that is fine.

No one else who's got experience from this software?

/LA

[grayhair]

   Hard to believe I am the only one on the planet who knows about this.  I installed the program twice--same user name came up--"paragon_db_scheduler." Ran a search for "paragon," and several Defender Pro files came up.   Maybe someone else needs to speak up, check this out if they are using Defender Pro (only way I know to discover it is by running Microsoft Baseline scan), or get the program and try it.  The firewall was also Defender Pro.  If having the user name on my computer is okay I might put it back on, but not until I know for sure--too scary.  Funny that Defender Pro won't defend this practice (I sent them 2 emails on the subject).  Maybe they prefer to keep this close to their vest.

[LeoniAquila]

You couldn't even see this admin user in the "Documents and Settings" folder, when showing hidden files and folders / system folders? I actually don't know if it's possible to be a user, if there isn't a corrensponding folder for the user in "Documents and Settings". In my folder, there is "All Users" and "LL" (my own) which both are visible, plus "LocalService" and "NetworkService" which are hidden. When logging in as Administrator, that folder will be created, but I don't have it now. There was also another folder/user (don't remember its name) which I deleted when my install of XP was fresh.

/LA

[Ragwing]

Greetings,

I'm not quite sure, but I think it might somehow be involved in virus database updating?
Its name is paragon_db_schedule. I have no idea wha 'paragon' is, but 'db' could be 'database' and schedule means it's sheduled to run, maybe to download virus database updates?
It maybe creates the account because it needs administrator rights(tho I doubt that's needed...)?
And can it be viewed if you open up Computer Management(compmgmt.msc), then go to 'Local users and groups' and then click 'Users'. Then you should get a list of every users on this computer.
I noticed VMware Player also creates an account.
I'll send them an e-mail about it and see if I get an answer, tho I doubt it's anything malicious, but if it's not I want an aswer form them.

Also, about its reward:

it looks convincing with all those awards

Maybe should read this:
http://successfulsoftware.net/2007/08/16/the-software-awards-scam/ (Credit goes to Wisanggeni, https://forums.comodo.com/general_discussion_off_topic_anything_and_everything/the_lol_topic-t11655.0.html;msg83023#msg83023)


Ragwing

[grayhair]

 Yeah, I figured it was for updating.  Never looked at Computer Management--just got rid of the program.  I figure that my computer needs to be secure more than DF needs to update itself.

[Tags:]