Virus Bulletin
Copyright © 2020 Virus Bulletin
For more than two decades, Virus Bulletin has been testing anti-malware products and reporting on their performance – over that time both the threat landscape and the products themselves have evolved, but the VB100 certification scheme has remained a constant, a mark of distinction for those products that live up to expectation. The VB100 logo is the ‘stamp of approval’ conferred on products that satisfy a minimum standard of detecting malicious executables that have recently been seen in the wild, while blocking few to no legitimate programs.
This report details the VB100 certification results of 42 anti‑malware products from 36 different vendors during March and April 2020.
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.
The malware part of the VB100 certification uses the WildList, a regularly updated list of extremely well-vetted malware samples, guaranteed to have been spotted in the wild multiple times. This makes them very suitable for a certification test like VB100.
The ‘Diversity Test’ looks at products’ detection of another set of recent malware samples, to acknowledge the fact that products detect malware samples beyond a standard set of samples, and provides a measure of that detection.
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 | 12.7.1055.0 |  |
| Windows 10 version | 12.7.1055.0 | |
| WildList detection | 99.7% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 12.7.1055.0 | |
| Windows 10 version | 12.7.1055.0 | |
| WildList detection | 99.9% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 2020.03.05 - 7.83962 | |
| Windows 10 version | 2020.03.05 - 7.83962 | |
| WildList detection | 99.9% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 9.0.60.1 | |
| Windows 10 version | 9.0.60.1 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 99.90% |
| Windows 7 version | 2020.03.05 | |
| Windows 10 version | 2020.03.11 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 20.1.2397 | |
| Windows 10 version | 20.1.2397 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.001% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 20.1.3112 | |
| Windows 10 version | 20.1.3112 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.001% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 8.3.56.10 | |
| Windows 10 version | 8.3.56.10 | |
| WildList detection | 99.9% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 98.14% |
| Windows 7 version | 2020.3.0.10024 | |
| Windows 10 version | 2020.3.0.10024 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 14.0.1400.2228 | |
| Windows 10 version | 14.0.1400.2228 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 7.1.2053.0 | |
| Windows 10 version | 7.1.2053.0 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 13.0.24.0 | |
| Windows 10 version | 13.0.24.0 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 13.0.24.0 | |
| Windows 10 version | 13.0.24.0 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 4.0.2.23116 | |
| Windows 10 version | 4.0.2.23116 | |
| WildList detection | 99.9% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 95.99% |
(see notes in Appendix 2)
| Windows 7 version | 8.3.56.10 | |
| Windows 10 version | 8.3.56.10 | |
| WildList detection | 99.9% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 98.43% |
| Windows 7 version | 4.21.3102.484 | |
| Windows 10 version | 4.21.3102.484 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 31.28.8 | |
| Windows 10 version | 31.28.8 | |
| WildList detection | 99.9% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 6.2.3.0912 | |
| Windows 10 version | 6.2.3.0912 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 98.53% |
| Windows 7 version | 25.5.5.43 | |
| Windows 10 version | 25.5.5.43 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 3.1.16 | |
| Windows 10 version | 3.1.16 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 99.90% |
| Windows 7 version | 1.0.0.13 | |
| Windows 10 version | 1.0.0.13 | |
| WildList detection | 99.9% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 99.90% |
| Windows 7 version | 1.0.0.14 | |
| Windows 10 version | 1.0.0.14 | |
| WildList detection | 99.8% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 16.0.0632 | |
| Windows 10 version | 16.0.0632 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 11.1.1.126 | |
| Windows 10 version | 11.1.1.126 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 4.14.31 | |
| Windows 10 version | 4.14.31 | |
| WildList detection | 99.9% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | v10.0 build: 6.6.0.4082 | |
| Windows 10 version | v10.0 build: 6.6.0.4082 | |
| WildList detection | 99.9% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 3.0.0.95 | |
| Windows 10 version | 3.0.0.95 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.005% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 92.37% |
| Windows 7 version | 4.14.31 | |
| Windows 10 version | 4.14.31 | |
| WildList detection | 99.9% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 3.7.2.45 | |
| Windows 10 version | 3.7.2.45 | |
| WildList detection | 99.9% | |
| False positive rate | 0.001% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 1.0.1000.9539 | |
| Windows 10 version | 1.0.1000.9539 | |
| WildList detection | 99.6% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
(see notes in Appendix 2)
| Windows 7 version | N/A | |
| Windows 10 version | 1.0 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.001% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 98.63% |
| Windows 7 version | 5.0.0.57 | |
| Windows 10 version | 5.0.0.57 | |
| WildList detection | 99.9% | |
| False positive rate | 0.002% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 99.80% |
| Windows 7 version | 1.5.238835 | |
| Windows 10 version | 1.5.238835 | |
| WildList detection | 99.9% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 12.3.26607.901 | |
| Windows 10 version | 12.3.26607.901 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 5.4.24 | |
| Windows 10 version | 5.4.24 | |
| WildList detection | 99.9% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 12.0.0.251 SP1 | |
| Windows 10 version | 12.0.0.251 SP1 | |
| WildList detection | 99.9% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 1.0.1.34 | |
| Windows 10 version | 1.0.1.34 | |
| WildList detection | 99.9% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 11.0.7633 | |
| Windows 10 version | 11.0.7633 | |
| WildList detection | 99.9% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
| Windows 7 version | 9.1.38 | |
| Windows 10 version | 9.1.35 | |
| WildList detection | 100.0% | |
| False positive rate | 0.000% | |
| Diversity Test rate | 66.24% |
The following products did not achieve VB100 certification in this test:
The WildList (certification) set contained 2,685 malicious samples. The set of clean samples used for the false positive test contained 99,991 files, of which 29,107 were portable executable (PE) files. The set used for the Diversity Test contained 1,022 malicious samples.
1 The WildList is an extremely well-vetted set of malware recently observed in the wild by researchers: http://www.wildlist.org/.
