
AVG EMAIL SHIELD FOR MAC VERIFICATION
EV certificates are backed by a much more thorough identity verification process, not to mention that they’re considerably more expensive than a normal certificate. This is what a real certificate is supposed to look like:ĭid you notice the inscription “Microsoft Corporation ” next to the padlock symbol that indicates you’re on an encrypted connection? That shows Microsoft is using an EV (Extended Validation) certificate for this particular site. Now compare the identity information for the “clean” connection with avast! web shield disabled to the information that was showing up in my first example showing Google Maps. Have a look at the “Issued by:” entry for the certificate information and also the encryption information in the URL box: Web Shield AlertĪs I was preparing the images for the blog post, I noticed the same behaviour on. I case you’re not that familiar with what the connection information is supposed to show you, you can be pretty sure that Google doesn’t have their identity verified by avast!. A quick check on a Windows machine in my household confirmed that this was also true for Windows:
AVG EMAIL SHIELD FOR MAC FOR MAC OS
I read about this on a blog post that was linked from Hacker News where someone claimed that Avast’s virus scanner for Mac OS inserts itself into SSL-encrypted connections using a self-signed certificate.

Deactivate or pause Web Shield, File Shield, Mail Shield or Behavior Shield on Windows 10/8.1/7 or Mac OS X.


Tl dr – avast’s web shield functionality appears to insert itself into SSL connections using a self signed trusted root certificate and a simple kind of man-in-the middle “attack” on SSL.
