Spybot Search and Destroy Definitions Updated on 4/17/ 2008, to fix incompatibility with SpywareBlaster and Firefox
After people began applying the Spybot Search and Destroy definition updates of April 16, 2008, then immunizing their computers through the Immunize function, those with both Firefox and SpywareBlaster installed began experiencing sudden terminations when trying to open SpywareBlaster. It turns out that one of the definitions in the Spybot immunization database was causing a memory conflict with SpywareBlaster, directly related to a Firefox immunization update. There was a heated discussion about this on the Spybot S & D forum and on April 17, 2008, a second update was released to fix the problem. If you use Spybot S & D, SpywareBlaster and Firefox, and you applied the April 16 updates, you need to download the patched definitions. Use the Spybot Search and Destroy Updater from your Start Menu > Programs to fetch the newest updates, then apply them, then open Spybot's user interface and re-apply immunization for Firefox.
Details
After immunizing Firefox, with the updates from 17/4/08, upon attempting to open SpywareBlaster this error message popped up:
Error: Access violation at 0x005F71FC (tried to read from 0x04F3032C), Program termminated
Some users performed an immunization "Undo" on the Firefox protection only and it worked,
just using SpywareBlaster to immunize Firefox. Normally, these programs get along quite well, but this time there was a glitch. I applaud Team Spybot for rushing out a sudden patch to correct this problem, as I also use SpywareBlaster and Firefox on some of my computers and was similarly affected.
For those who don't know the details about these programs, both Spybot Search and Destroy, by Patrick M. Kolla, and SpywareBlaster, by Javacool Software, are well known freeware security programs that have a feature they call "Immunization," which is a proactive form of protection against known hostile ActiveX controls, dangerous domains, browser hijackers and even advertiser's cookies, placed by websites you visit. By "Immunizing" after updating you protect against exploits from the controls, files, websites and other items in the definitions. If these unwanted items are on your computer already they get nullified by the immunization. Otherwise, once immunized, these applications cannot install themselves unless you knowingly override your already applied protection. This is done by unchecking a particular immunization rule, or by undoing all immunizations, en-masse.
Both programs require users to perform manual checking for updates, although SpywareBlaster does offer automatic updates for a small fee. Spybot S & D is always updated on Wednesdays and users must run a manual check for updates. I usually do this on Wednesday evenings, or on Thursday afternoon, just in case a faulty definition was released then patched, like just happened here. SpywareBlaster's latest definitions were released on 4/6/2008, so their update schedule is less regular than Spybot's.
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