Virus Bulletin
Copyright © 2018 Virus Bulletin
Though in the ever-changing threat landscape anti-virus products have long ceased to be the only thing needed to keep devices secure, they remain as important as ever, as both a first and a last line of defence: to scan potentially malicious files before they make it onto a device, and to block them from running if all other defences have failed.
For more than two decades, the VB100 certification scheme has provided an easy to recognize (but not always easy to obtain) award that affirms that a product satisfies the minimum requirements one should expect of an anti-virus product.
This test report details the performance of 31 anti-virus products from 29 different vendors tested during May and June 2018, each of which achieved a VB100 award.
In the VB100 test, a copy of the product to be tested is installed on two platforms: Windows 10 and Windows 7. On each platform, and at three different times in the test, the product is asked to scan both the latest version of the WildList1 and a selection of clean files taken from Virus Bulletin's own set of files belonging to widely used legitimate software.
A legitimate file that is blocked at least once is considered a false positive, while a WildList file that isn't blocked is considered a miss.
A product achieves a VB100 certification if:
and
For full details, we refer to the VB100 methodology on the Virus Bulletin website: https://www.virusbulletin.com/testing/vb100/vb100-methodology/vb100-methodology-ver1-1/. This test used version 1.1 of the VB100 methodology.
As per the methodology, another test was executed alongside the Certification Test: the Diversity Test, which is designed to measure the detection of a more diverse collection of malware. However, after validation of the 2,000 malware samples that were used in this test, and discarding those that, for various reasons, weren't perfectly suited to the test, we ended up with a set of fewer than 750 malware samples.
Since we do not believe this is a sufficient number of samples for the provision of relevant data, we have decided not to publish the results of the Diversity Test on this occasion. It should be noted that, as per the methodology, performance in the Diversity Test would not have counted towards VB100 certification.
We are currently re-evaluating how we source and select the samples to be used in this test. It should be noted, though, that it is an important feature of the Diversity Test that most validation doesn't happen until after the test has run.
Products were allowed to download updates during the course of the test. The version numbers listed in the results that follows refer to those at the start of the test.
Windows 7 version | 9.0.46.6 | |
Windows 10 version | 9.0.46.6 | |
WildList detection | 99.9% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 2018.05.10 | |
Windows 10 version | 2018.05.09 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 18.3.2333 | |
Windows 10 version | 18.4.2338 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 18.3.3051 | |
Windows 10 version | 18.4.3056 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 6.2.36.1014 | |
Windows 10 version | 6.2.36.1014 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 18.0.347.18 | |
Windows 10 version | 18.0.347.18 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 5.1.38 | |
Windows 10 version | 5.1.38 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.002% |
Windows 7 version | 15.1.0108 | |
Windows 10 version | 15.1.0.0108 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.001% |
Windows 7 version | 2018.4.0.8631 | |
Windows 10 version | 2018.4.0.8631 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 14.0.1400.2029 | |
Windows 10 version | 14.0.1400.2029 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 11.0.159.9 | |
Windows 10 version | 11.0.159.9 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 3.0.1.3 | |
Windows 10 version | 3.0.1.3 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 4.12.3102.401 | |
Windows 10 version | 4.12.3102.401 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.008% |
Windows 7 version | 26.21.8 | |
Windows 10 version | 26.21.8 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 5.6.2.1117 | |
Windows 10 version | 5.6.2.1117 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 25.4.0.3 | |
Windows 10 version | 25.4.0.3 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 2.16.20 | |
Windows 10 version | 2.16.20 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 15.1.0335 | |
Windows 10 version | 15.1.0335 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.001% |
Windows 7 version | 11.0.0.6499 | |
Windows 10 version | 11.0.0.6499 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 1.0.106.88154 | |
Windows 10 version | 1.0.106.88154 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.001% |
Windows 7 version | 3.0.0.78 | |
Windows 10 version | 3.0.0.78 | |
WildList detection | 99.7% | |
False positive rate | 0.002% |
Windows 7 version | 2.0.1430 | |
Windows 10 version | 2.0.1430 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 5.0.0.0 | |
Windows 10 version | 5.0.0.0 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 1.0.98986 | |
Windows 10 version | 1.0.98986 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 12.3.26544.901 | |
Windows 10 version | 12.3.26544.901 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 9.0.0.747 | |
Windows 10 version | 9.0.0.747 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 9.0.0.747 | |
Windows 10 version | 9.0.0.747 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 4.6.19 | |
Windows 10 version | 4.6.19 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 10.1.4.33 | |
Windows 10 version | 10.1.4.33 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 8.6 | |
Windows 10 version | 8.6 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Windows 7 version | 6.2.34.998 | |
Windows 10 version | 6.2.34.998 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% |
Technical and other issues can render the data we collect insufficient or otherwise unsuitable for accurate reporting. In such cases, the methodology allows us to discard the affected test part and record the event below. Two healthy test parts out of three are required for the certification to be issued.
The WildList contained 894 samples. The set of clean files used for the false positive test contained 100,000 files, of which 30,070 were portable executable (PE) files.
1 The WildList is an extremely well-vetted set of malware recently observed in the wild by researchers: http://www.wildlist.org/.