NOTE: In versions 4.3 and earlier, Powertech Antivirus was called Stand Guard Anti-Virus.
July 2019
Version 5.1
New Features
- The following improvements have been made to Powertech Antivirus-specific features of the HelpSystems Insite web browser interface.
- The running configuration of the On-access virus scanning service, including notification settings, can now be updated. Configuration updates can be applied to one or several endpoints simultaneously.
- Notification settings can now be configured for On-demand scanning.
- A new Insite Powertech Antivirus service has been added.
- The ability to reference status information about requests sent to Insite's Powertech Antivirus service has been added.
- A new On-access scanning option allows for scanning of files when opened and closed.
Enhancements
- Additional information has been added to the Endpoint Properties pane, including OS, Powertech Antivirus version, DAT file version, and scan engine version.
- Default settings in the configuration file have been updated to improve performance.
Other Fixes
- Powertech Antivirus no longer checks for an empty parameter when -- is specified.
- The bash dependency for Powertech Antivirus RPM and DEB packages has been removed.
- An incorrectly configured notify section in config.ini (for example, a missing dot in name.cmd or name.options) no longer causes avconfig/avscan/avsvc to crash.
- A potential avscan/avupdate/avsvc crash caused by a malformed license file has been resolved.
June 2019
Version 4.1.5
(Legacy version for OS compatibility (includes previous name Stand Guard Anti-Virus) without On-access scanning support)
- Curl support has been added for HTTP support acquiring DAT files.
- The default avupdate action now uses curl to acquire virus definition updates from McAfee's HTTP server.
- Powertech Antivirus now uses the McAfee 6000 Anti-Malware Engine, which includes the following new features:
- Enhanced support for JavaScript, including stabilization and performance improvements.
- Improved VBA file handling capability to detect more threats.
- Improved access to Win32 APIs enabling better policy control over DAT content.
- Enhanced support to detect 64-bit PE , ELF , Mach-O and .NET based malware.
- Improved ELF file handling capability.
- Optimizations to DAT initialization to improve load times.
April 2019
Version 5.0.1
- The bash dependency for installing Powertech Antivirus has been removed.
March 2019
Version 5.0
- Powertech Antivirus is now supported by the HelpSystems Insite web browser interface, which allows you to easily monitor your systems using Insite's Dashboard and interactive controls.
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Notifications can now be sent from several points in Powertech Antivirus, including On-Demand Scanning and On-Access Scanning. Scheduled emails can also be sent for status updates.
- Powertech Antivirus now uses the McAfee 6000 Anti-Malware Engine, which includes the following new features:
- Enhanced support for JavaScript, including stabilization and performance improvements.
- Improved VBA file handling capability to detect more threats.
- Improved access to Win32 APIs enabling better policy control over DAT content.
- Enhanced support to detect 64-bit PE , ELF , Mach-O and .NET based malware.
- Improved ELF file handling capability.
- Optimizations to DAT initialization to improve load times.
- The product has been renamed "Powertech Antivirus." The new name is used throughout the software and accompanying documentation. (Prior to version 5.0, the product was called "Stand Guard Anti-Virus.")
August 2018
Version 4.3 (AIX only)
New Features
- Stand Guard Anti-Virus can now scan files as they are accessed by users of the system, a process known as On-Access Scanning.
- An on-access management service is provided, which allows you to start, stop, and query the status of the service, as well as load configuration file updates.
- On-access scan options are controlled through a configuration file.
- A reporting tool is provided to display the status of the service.
- Stand Guard Anti-Virus manages scanning of mounted file systems by detecting unmount and mount actions, resuming the scan procedure accordingly.
- Scans that take too long can now be aborted after a specified timeout duration.
- File caching allows for enhanced on-access scanning performance.
- New diagnostic capabilities have been added that reveal environment details helpful for analysis and troubleshooting.
- Tools have been provided to validate and update the on-access configuration file.
Enhancements
- The Stand Guard Anti-Virus installation package now includes a version of the McAfee virus definitions to allow for scanning immediately after installation.
Other Fixes
- The --cmd option in AVSCAN now scans the script file before execution.
- All AVSCAN options are now validated.
- The --loglevel 1 option in AVSCAN no longer results in unexpected behavior.
- An issue causing an incorrect file count in the AVSCAN scan summary has been corrected.
June 2018
Version 4.1.4 (AIX only)
- The --delay option now allows you to specify a pause (in milliseconds) as a CPU limiting technique to manage system resources under heavy use.
May 2018
Version 4.2 (Linux only)
New Features
- Stand Guard Anti-Virus can now scan files as they are accessed by users of the system, a process known as On-Access Scanning.
- An on-access management service is provided, which allows you to start, stop, and query the status of the service, as well as load configuration file updates.
- On-access scan options are controlled through a configuration file.
- A reporting tool is provided to display the status of the service.
- Stand Guard Anti-Virus manages scanning of mounted file systems by detecting unmount and mount actions, resuming the scan procedure accordingly.
- Scans that take too long can now be aborted after a specified timeout duration.
- File caching allows for enhanced on-access scanning performance.
- New diagnostic capabilities have been added that reveal environment details helpful for analysis and troubleshooting.
- Tools have been provided to validate and update the on-access configuration file.
Enhancements
- The Stand Guard Anti-Virus installation package now includes a version of the McAfee virus definitions to allow for scanning immediately after installation.
Other Fixes
- The --cmd option in AVSCAN now scans the script file before execution.
- All AVSCAN options are now validated.
- The --loglevel 1 option in AVSCAN no longer results in unexpected behavior.
- An issue causing an incorrect file count in the AVSCAN scan summary has been corrected.
- --passive is now the default option on RedHat systems.
February 2018
Version 4.1.3
- The --maxwait, --exclude, --cmd, --timeout, and --loglevel options are now validated prior to running the command in order to eliminate unexpected behavior.
- The AVSCAN options summary now displays PUP scan options correctly.
- The AVSCAN --cmd option now scans script files before execution.
- The AVSCAN summary now accurately displays the number of files that were scanned. The scanner no longer counts the files identified as infected twice.
- Unexpected behavior caused by using loglevel1 has been resolved.
- Directories are no longer potentially skipped after a large or infected archive is detected.
November 2017
Version 4.1.2
Enhancements
- Scan results from many Stand Guard Anti-Virus installations can now be directed to SYSLOG in order to provide centralized monitoring.
- Stand Guard Anti-Virus now supports RHEL 7.1 (and later) Power Linux Little Endian and SLES 12 Power Linux Little Endian. (Linux only)
- Support for Wget has been added. (Linux only)
Other Updates
- AVSCAN no longer scans the /Quarantined folder, which is unnecessary and results in extraneous nested folders.
October 2017
Version 4.1
- Stand Guard Anti-Virus now supports Power RHEL 6 & 7 and SLES 11 Big Endian Linux.
For more information, visit the McAfee website.
June 2017
Version 4.0-13
- Stand Guard Anti-Virus now uses the new McAfee 5900 Anti-Malware Engine, which includes the following:
- Enhanced support of JavaScript malware detection
- Enhancements to DAT content to improve predictability of content processing
- A new high-performance executable packer (MPRESS) to decompress executables
- Dotfuscator .NET obfuscation functionality for string obfuscation
Improved support of OLE file format Platform enhancements
For more information, visit the McAfee website.
November 2016
Version 4.0-12
- Updated McAfee Scan Engine 5800.
- Enhancements to PDF format to improve exploit detection capabilities.
- Improved unpacking of .NET, VBA, Shockwave Flash and generic unpacking improvements to detect more threats.
- Performance optimizations of initialization and scanning.
- Ability to run real-time scans interactively.
- Use your favorite scheduler to run system scans and download DAT file updates. CRON is no longer required.
- Simplified User Interface for enhanced user experience.
- Improved Stability.
- Support for 64-bit systems.
February 2016
Version 4.0-11
- Updated McAfee Scan Engine 5800.
- Enhancements to PDF format to improve exploit detection capabilities.
- Improved unpacking of .NET, VBA, Shockwave Flash and generic unpacking improvements to detect more threats.
- Performance optimizations of initialization and scanning.
- Ability to run real-time scans interactively.
- Use your favorite scheduler to run system scans and download DAT file updates. CRON is no longer required.
- Simplified User Interface for enhanced user experience.
- Improved Stability.