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Re: [VirusTotal] Scan result (fwd)


From: Michel Messerschmidt <lists () michel-messerschmidt de>
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 11:31:27 +0200

On Thu, Sep 02, 2004 at 04:01:16PM -0400, Über GuidoZ wrote:
It's kind of interesting to see the results, as it shows you what AV
programs seem to detect things better then others. 

I think this is actually misleading. 
You know nearly nothing from scanning just a single (or 10, 50,...) 
sample. And there are other basic test requirements. For example:
- the different results could be due to differences in the update 
  schedule at virustotal.com (some vendors offer their fastest updates
  only for premium licenses, which virustotal may not have). 
- maybe some products are used with optimized settings (for example 
  maximum heuristic detection) and others with default settings.


It's also useful 
for known viruses, but needing to know what each AV program calls
them. (I find this useful when trying to do tech support.)

You know Vgrep (http://www.virusbtn.com/resources/vgrep/index.xml) ?


-- 
Michel Messerschmidt           lists () michel-messerschmidt de
antiVirusTestCenter, Computer Science, University of Hamburg

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