Zone is not the only enterprise desktop firewall that has this feature. Other vendors attempt to use a term called "application fingerprinting". It is ok for a small organization with a lijmited number of users, but when one installs it in a enterprise network of 200,000 users, it becomes a nightmare for a team of system administrators. Blocking a certain .dll could break applications that rely on it. For example, Blocking users from utilizing Internet Explorer and it's associated .dlls could actually break Windows.

In conclusion, application learning/application protection needs improvement especially those vendors who are attempting to establish themselves in the Magic Quadrant.

Application Protection and malicious application should be examined with an in-line devices and other types of solutions.

/mark

At 11:16 AM 12/9/2003, Andrew Plato wrote:

I wrote a white paper on Hardening Windows 2k that specifically
addresses the problems with "Application Protection" oriented firewall
(http://www.anitian.com/corp/papers/Hardening_Win2k.pdf)

Honestly, in the hundreds of RSDP/BlackICE installs I've done over the
years now, I don't think I've ever had a single customer use the
application protection (AP). AP is a nice idea that is just too
difficult to implement properly in a distributed environment.
Furthermore, how are users to know if "SVCHOST.DLL" is a legit or not
program. I don't even know that and I'm a security guy.

The real problem is how often stuff changes in Windows. If you've ever
run tripwire on a Windows box is appalling how often core operating
system files change.

AP is the "ZoneAlamification of BlackICE." And Zone is a perfectly okay
product for a single home user. But for a distributed corp with a help
desk that must take boneheaded calls from users every hour, AP and
products like Zone are a flippin' nightmare. I've had a dozen or more
customer throw away their Zone installations after quickly realizing
that AP type products are too difficult to use in a Windows environment.


One concept that I have used is to put RSDP into "learning mode". That is have it log every time an application changes but not actually block it. This is an unsupported feature, and not terribly easy to implement, but I wrote a white paper on that as well.

See http://www.anitian.com/corp/papers/BI%20AC%20tweaking.pdf

___________________________________
Andrew Plato, CISSP
President/Principal Consultant
Anitian Enterprise Security

503-644-5656 Office
503-644-8574 Fax
503-201-0821 Mobile
www.anitian.com
___________________________________

-----Original Message-----
From: Cunningham, Chris, R. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: December 09, 2003 5:29 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [ISSForum] Desktop Protector and Application Protection


Does anyone have any whitepapers or personal insight into managing application protection on Desktop Protector. We are considering the use of this, but a wary of the time it may take to manage the checksums of application and OS binaries, especially if the patching schedule continues at its current pace.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris



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