Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[othermale]

When launching KeePassX for the first time on windows XP, Norton NIS gave me the message

"KeePassX is preparing to access the Internet"

While I'm not normal concerned about "...preparing to access the Internet" messages, in the case it is rather worrying since

1) there is no reason for it to be doing so and

2) it is a repository for all usernames and passwords.

Does anyone know why such a message would appear?

[BanMidou]

Hi

What is version of NIS your are using?

you can find by clicking Support>about

[othermale]

Hello thanks for the quick reply!

The version is 16.8.0.41

[delphinium Norton Fighter]

If you click on the entry and then more details is there any other information about what it is accessing?  It could be that there is a built in update checker, or some tracking for the developer to know how many installations are out in the world.  It may just be accessing other parts of the operating system and requires access through the firewall but not actually to the internet.

Also, you are running the 2009 version of Norton and are eligible to upgrade to the 2011 version free of charge.  Links can be provided if you wish to take advantage of an upgrade.

[othermale]

More details shows:

Severity: Info

Status: Detected

Recommended Action: No Action Required.

Category: Firewall-Activties

Severity: Info

Actions : No actions available

Even more confusing, I had set a firewall rule blocking it _before_ I ever ran it.

An update checker is unlikely since there isn't even a standard installer. Likewise phoning home to count installs is unlikely since it's non-profit open source. But I dunno. Even if it were one of those reasons, since it has access to such troves of extremely sensitive information, any unidentified connection it makes are very disturbing.

Is there a way to tell if it is merely accessing other system resources (which is quite possible)?

[BanMidou]

Hi

Please Update to latest version of Norton internet security for best protection

[othermale]

Sure, And I should add that my virus definitions are completely up to date.
 
But if we could get back to the original question: what is causing this message? Is it something to worry about given the sensitivity of the information the program has direct access to?

[BanMidou]

Hi to know more about what keepassX was acessing I recommend you pay a visit to the

keepassX Forum

They may be able to give you an answer regarding the connection attempt

http://www.keepassx.org/forum/

[reese_anschultz · Accepted solution]

As the message implies, the application is doing some things that are usually performed prior to accessing the Internet. The most common reason for messages like this from programs that don't access the Internet is because they are using some WinSock domain name or IP address manipulation, even though they don't actually access the network. Note that this particular event occurs before any real network traffic has been requested by the application.

[othermale]

Thank you reese for that explanation, I appreciate it enormously.