Virus Bulletin
Copyright © 2020 Virus Bulletin
The VB100 certification scheme provides a stamp of quality and competence for anti-malware 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 41 of such products from 36 different vendors during November and December 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.
As part of planned updates to the VB100 test in 2021, we will be retiring testing on the legacy Windows 7 platform, effective from January 2021.
We are introducing this change because the relevance of Windows 7 has diminished greatly in recent years, and the platform reaches end-of-life in January 2020 – as a consequence of which, a growing number of tested products either lack support for this platform, or struggle to perform properly on the legacy operating system. We expect the retirement to have negligible impact on the relevance of the VB100 reports.
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 | 15.0.24600 | |
Windows 10 version | 15.0.24600 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 99.90% |
Windows 7 version | Version 2021 build 32010 | |
Windows 10 version | Version 2021 build 32010 | |
WildList detection | 99.9% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 99.80% |
Windows 7 version | 12.10.55.0 | |
Windows 10 version | 12.10.55.0 | |
WildList detection | 99.9% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 99.50% |
Windows 7 version | 12.10.55.0 | |
Windows 10 version | 12.10.55.0 | |
WildList detection | 99.9% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 99.50% |
Windows 7 version | 2020.11.10 | |
Windows 10 version | 2020.11.10 | |
WildList detection | 99.9% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 99.50% |
Windows 7 version | 9.0.63.3 (b 1614) | |
Windows 10 version | 9.0.63.3 (b 1614) | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
Windows 7 version | 2020.11.10 | |
Windows 10 version | 2020.11.10 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 99.80% |
Windows 7 version | 20.9.2437 | |
Windows 10 version | 20.8.2432 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
Windows 7 version | 20.9.3152 | |
Windows 10 version | 20.8.3147 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
Windows 7 version | v1.8.2020 build 80 | |
Windows 10 version | v1.8.2020 build 80 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
(see notes in Appendix 2)
Windows 7 version | N/A | |
Windows 10 version | 1.0.57.0 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
Windows 7 version | 5.4 | |
Windows 10 version | 5.4 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
Windows 7 version | 1.0.0.56 | |
Windows 10 version | 1.0.0.56 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 99.70% |
Windows 7 version | 1.7.3.1 | |
Windows 10 version | 1.7.3.1 | |
WildList detection | 99.9% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
Windows 7 version | 2020.11.0.10501 | |
Windows 10 version | 2020.11.0.10501 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 99.80% |
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 | 99.80% |
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 | 99.50% |
Windows 7 version | 1.5.22.1 | |
Windows 10 version | 1.5.22.1 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
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 | 99.80% |
Windows 7 version | 32.30.13 | |
Windows 10 version | 32.30.13 | |
WildList detection | 99.9% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 99.50% |
Windows 7 version | 6.2.7.0984 | |
Windows 10 version | 6.2.7.0984 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
Windows 7 version | 25.5.8.14 | |
Windows 10 version | 25.5.8.14 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
Windows 7 version | 3.2.4 | |
Windows 10 version | 3.2.4 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
Windows 7 version | 1.0.1.7 | |
Windows 10 version | 1.0.1.7 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
Windows 7 version | 16.0.0658 | |
Windows 10 version | 16.0.0658 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
Windows 7 version | 5.5.83 | |
Windows 10 version | 5.5.83 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
Windows 7 version | 1.0.1.6 | |
Windows 10 version | 1.0.1.6 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
Windows 7 version | 6.6.0.4086 | |
Windows 10 version | 6.6.0.4086 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 99.80% |
Windows 7 version | 3.0.97 | |
Windows 10 version | 3.0.97 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.001% | |
Diversity Test rate | 99.10% |
Windows 7 version | 5.5.83 | |
Windows 10 version | 5.5.83 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
Windows 7 version | 6.4.0 | |
Windows 10 version | 6.4.0 | |
WildList detection | 99.5% | |
False positive rate | 0.010% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
(see notes in Appendix 2)
Windows 7 version | N/A | |
Windows 10 version | 1.0.1000.10853 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 99.90% |
Windows 7 version | 5.0.1.33 | |
Windows 10 version | 5.0.1.33 | |
WildList detection | 99.9% | |
False positive rate | 0.001% | |
Diversity Test rate | 99.50% |
Windows 7 version | 20.9.1 | |
Windows 10 version | 20.9.1 | |
WildList detection | 99.9% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 99.50% |
Windows 7 version | 12.3.26609.901 | |
Windows 10 version | 12.3.26609.901 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 99.80% |
Windows 7 version | 5.5.83 | |
Windows 10 version | 5.5.83 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
Windows 7 version | 12.0.0.298 SP3 | |
Windows 10 version | 12.0.0.298 | |
WildList detection | 99.9% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 99.50% |
(see notes in Appendix 2)
Windows 7 version | N/A | |
Windows 10 version | 1.0.1.60 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | N/A |
(see notes in Appendix 2)
Windows 7 version | N/A | |
Windows 10 version | 1.2 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 100.00% |
Windows 7 version | 12.0.7874 | |
Windows 10 version | 12.0.7874 | |
WildList detection | 99.9% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 99.80% |
Windows 7 version | 9.3 | |
Windows 10 version | 9.3 | |
WildList detection | 100.0% | |
False positive rate | 0.000% | |
Diversity Test rate | 71.50% |
All products achieved VB100 certification in this test.
The Certification Set contained 1,401 malicious samples. The set of clean samples used for the false positive test contained 100,000 files, of which 29,168 were portable executable (PE) files. The set used for the Diversity Test contained 1000 malicious samples.
1 The WildList is an extremely well-vetted set of malware recently observed in the wild by researchers: http://www.wildlist.org/.