Looks like it has been a while since we last posted anything on our blog, let’s see if we can improve on that :)

I’ll start by announcing that we have just released a new Linux Security 9.00. This new release includes the same scanning technology which was introduced in Internet Gatekeeper 4 in January this year, so the same performance improvements are now accessible to Linux Security users as well.

Other than that, several bugs have been fixed and the WebUI looks a little bit different. We know that a lot of you are waiting for support for new Linux kernel versions, but unfortunately this release is supported on pretty much the same distributions as the previous release, with a few exceptions. We wanted to integrate the new scanning technology to the product first in order to keep the detection rate and performance up to date and concentrate on the new kernels next. However, as you can see in the release notes, we did add Ubuntu 10.04 and SLES 11 as supported distributions if you install the product in command-line only mode.

In case you are wondering why the version number jumped from 7 to 9 when there aren’t that many changes, it was done just to bring the number in line with our other corporate products. So don’t be scared of updating ;)

The release package can be downloaded from our Web Club.

As usual, please report any problems to F-Secure support or the email address at the bottom of this page.

We have just released F-Secure Internet Gatekeeper for Linux 4.00. This version includes our new scanning technology that improves detection capabilities and product performance. The same scanning technology is already in use in our award-winning Internet Security 2010 for Windows. Version 4 also brings in better anti-spam capabilities with a new Spam Detection Engine. For more information, please have a look at the release notes.

Please find the release package in the following location:

f-secure-internet-gatekeeper-for-linux-4.00.2138.tar.gz
md5sum: 51802c59873b11b0350b9d621a8177bd
sha1sum: 713dc49b7c982e9c2893c74618af7a83ec546d2d

PS. For all of you Debian and Ubuntu users, there is now a .deb package available for easy installation. Sorry for not having a repository up yet, let us know you want it and we’ll see what happens ;) The usual contact address is at the bottom of this page.

A new version of our Internet Gatekeeper for Linux is now available. This service release version fixes a few bugs and we have added support for a couple of new Linux distributions too.

SuSE users will be happy to hear that the init script bug which caused problems for product startup after rebooting the computer has now been fixed. For a full list of changes, please have a look at the release notes.

The product package can be downloaded here:

f-secure-internet-gatekeeper-for-linux-3.03.1299.tar.gz
md5sum: 939a3c3954d5c568965eef479d445470
sha1sum: aceb18dc3124d57292d8baee7b7d47dc76a47771

Now it is time to release the new Rescue CD for which we put out the beta some time ago. We decided to update the version number to 3.11 since we added a couple of useful utilities to the CD image. Otherwise this is the same version as is available on our Internet Security 2010 installation CD.

The new utilities on the CD are:

* PhotoRec is a tool that can be used to recover data that has been accidentally deleted or lost due to a corrupted file system on a disk.
* TestDisk is another data recovery tool that can be used to recover a lost partition, for example.
* smartmontools contain utilities that can be used to inspect S.M.A.R.T. values of hard disks. By analyzing these numbers you may get a hint if your hard disk is starting to show signs of breaking down. Check the Documentation page for more information and tutorials on how to use the tools.

Note: F-Secure does not provide any support for using the above mentioned utilities and the best resource for help on using them can probably be found from their Wiki pages.

Have a look at the release notes and then download the product package here:

f-secure-rescue-cd-3.11.23804.zip
f-secure-rescue-cd-3.11.23804.zip.md5sum
f-secure-rescue-cd-3.11.23804.zip.sha1sum

So much testing to do, test cases to automate, blog posts to write and so little time - we’re looking for a Test Engineer to join us in the Mac & Linux team in Helsinki!

The Mac & Linux team is an international team of 10 multi-talented agile software development professionals. We develop and maintain F-Secure’s Mac and Linux products like Mac Protection, Linux Security, Internet Gatekeeper for Linux and Rescue CD and use Scrum to run our projects. We have a lot of challenges and learning opportunities to offer, and we like to have fun while working.

As a member of our team, your main responsibilities will be planning and automating tests as well as manual testing. You will also participate in project planning, product design, maintaining our development systems and helping sales and support. Looking for better ways of doing things will be an important part of your work.

You can find the whole ad (and other open positions at F-Secure) here.

If the position sounds like it should be yours, please apply by Friday next week (Sept 4th)! We’re waiting eagerly to hear from you!

Last month we released a beta of Internet Gatekeeper for Linux. Now it has reached maturity and we’re announcing its general availability. Internet Gatekeeper is a stable multi-purpose virus scanning proxy that supports the FTP, SMTP, POP3 and HTTP protocols. As mentioned before, the Internet Gatekeeper now builds upon the same foundation as our product Linux Security, enabling us to provide fast and effective updates. IGK supports several modes of operation, including acting as a transparent proxy, a reverse proxy scanning incoming files in HTTP PUT or POST request, as well as chaining with other proxy software such as Squid.

Please download your free 30-day trial from our main website. Check our support pages if you have any problems, and in particular, try searching our Knowledge Base articles.

We are now releasing a new beta version of our Internet Gatekeeper for Linux. This version contains several architectural improvements and utilizes the same core components as our Linux Security 7 product. More information can be found in the release notes and manual within the product package.

Without further ado - please download and give it a spin on your test box :). And, as always, do drop us a note about your experiences with the beta!

Product package:
f-secure-internet-gatekeeper-for-linux-3.02.1164-beta.tgz (MD5, SHA1)

A new version of Linux Security 7 is available. Please find the product package here:

f-secure-linux-security-7.02.73807.tgz (MD5, SHA1)

This release contains several bug fixes. For example, scanning speed for certain types of archive files has been improved, and the automated command-line-only installation now works properly. Have a look at the release notes for a more in-depth view of what has changed.

Please note that from now on, the product manual will be available for downloading separately, which makes it easier for us to keep it up to date. You can find it on the F-Secure Product Manuals web page, as well as here.

We recently made a small new feature for the Rescue CD. One of our customers had problems with a system file that was renamed by our virus scanner, but the detection was actually a false positive. Problem was of course promptly fixed in anti-virus databases, but since the system file was renamed, the machines in question failed to boot. To help this customer we implemented a new feature for Rescue CD that allows the user to run repair scripts from a USB stick when booting with the Rescue CD. Since this feature might be useful in some other situations too, we decided to make a new public release. Here are instructions on how to use the feature:

1. Copy the script (repair_script.sh) onto a USB stick, in a folder called fsecure/rescuecd (for example, in Windows this might be E:\fsecure\rescuecd\repair_script.sh). The script must be called repair_script.sh, and if the script is from F-Secure, it should have an accompanying gpg signature file (repair_script.sh.sig) which should also be copied to the same folder.

2. Insert the USB stick in the broken computer and boot the computer using Rescue CD 3.01.

3. When Rescue CD asks which partitions to scan, there is now a new option to run the repair script. Select that, and which partitions you want to run the script on, and continue.

4. If the script is not from F-Secure or the gpg signature is not correct, the script will still be shown, but Rescue CD will display a warning and ask if you still want to run the script.

5. After the script has ran, the results will be displayed and you have the option to continue with a file system scan or reboot the computer.

Please note that this version only supports running the repair script before the actual virus scan. So if you must run a repair script after a virus scan, you should first boot and scan the computer, and then insert the USB stick containing the repair script and reboot with Rescue CD.

The new version can be downloaded here.

checksums for f-secure-rescue-cd-release-3.01-14505.zip:
md5sum: 5c2b86cdb11f9d1cade3243818afb7ca
sha1sum: 8eb21784e780222c1823c09d9e21ac577888ba4c

It seems that some people have experienced problems with Rescue CD not mounting NTFS partitions for scanning.

If you encounter a display that looks like this It means that the partition was not mounted for some reason. In this case only one partition - hda1, but it could be multiple partitions. If mounting failed because the NTFS partition was marked dirty (windows had not been properly shutdown), there are ways to try and fix this.

The Best solution in this case is to detach the network cable or disable wireless and boot the Windows preferably into safe mode by removing the CD and pressing F8 in boot sequence and selecting “Safe Mode”. After Windows has booted, select shutdown. After machine has turned itself off, attach/enable network and boot into Rescue CD.

However, if your computer is so badly infected that booting to Windows will not work or it gets hung up till infinity and beyond, you might be able to mount the problematic partitions for scanning with following procedure.

Press Alt-F2 and into command prompt type
root!tty2:/# grep scan /tmp/mount_error_details.txt

You should get the commands that you can try to use for mounting dirty NTFS partitions.
ie.
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/hda1 /mnt/scan/hda1 -oforce
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/hda5 /mnt/scan/hda5 -oforce

With the df command you can verify if the mount succeeded and also check the partition information (how big it is and how much of it is used/free)

After you have verified that the partition you wish to scan is mounted, press Alt-F1 and press
enter to verify next and continue with scanning process.

The workaround is a bit complicated, I know. We will try to fix the issue in the next version of Rescue CD.