Better deactivation policies

[rickla]

I lost my lifetime key on one machine, which is its own story. However....

I suggest that if a key is going to be deactivated, removed or whatever by malwarebytes, that you proactively have the app signal this at least a few days ahead of time via the toolbar and app.

The issue is, my computer (and many others I see) have suddenly had real time protection turned off, leaving it vulnerable. This is hold in the security model, and I would venture a vector for exploit. A bad actor would target corrupting or removing the key and gain access.

This is also an issue with upgrades. At least ten times on several of my machines, an upgrade is applied and afterward, the key is completely gone, and no real time protection is present. This has never been fixed.

It seems if it reverts to this state it should at least keep real time mode on for a few days and have a prominent warning. 

[AdvancedSetup]

Thank you for the feedback

As for the loss of the license during an update yes it can happen but is very rare. For you to experience it more than once on your system is even more rare. In the cases where it does happen a clean removal of the program and reboot of the computer and re-install typically fixes it. I've only seen maybe a couple where it did not and that was due to other issues that had to be fixed on the user's computer. However, we're always working to reduce and correct even these rare cases as we'd prefer it not happen to anyone either.

Thank you again

 

[rickla]

Happened multiple times to me, and reboot did not fix it, I had to find the keys and re-enter them. Normally no counter reset needed but it was a few times. But the computer was exposed, and that's the hole I'd like to see addressed.

[AdvancedSetup]

The part about happening to you multiple times is the only thing odd here. I would recommend you open a ticket with support and ask for assistance. With millions of customers and only and a handful of reports of it happening and you say it happens multiple times leads me to believe you have something possibly running on your system that somehow conflicts with our program.

 

Contact Malwarebytes Support
https://support.malwarebytes.com/community/consumer/pages/contact-us

 

If you do need additional help please let us know and we'll be more than happy to assist you.

 

[rickla]

I'll wait till next time and contact them. I have five different computers all quite different, each has experienced this after an upgrade at one time or another, I think the last time was the spring but just one of them.

But it's an aside, since it can happen, I hope my suggestion gets to the developers. (And because malwarebytes can also legit blacklist a key).

[exile360]

1 hour ago, rickla said:

This is hold in the security model, and I would venture a vector for exploit. A bad actor would target corrupting or removing the key and gain access.

Regarding this specific hypothetical scenario, that actually shouldn't be possible, at least as long as the self-protection component is active (which is it by default in Premium/Trial mode) as it shields Malwarebyte' files, processes and data from being modified by any unauthorized processes.  This is necessary because otherwise not only could a user's license be compromised, but also Malwarebytes' exclusions (meaning bad guys could potentially add their own malware to the user's exclusions list without the user's knowledge), databases/signatures (meaning the bad guys could potentially edit/modify the signatures/databases to remove any lines that detect their malware if they figure out how to decrypt it) or just break the program by corrupting any of its required files/data which it relies on to function.