I have NIS configured so that Automatic Program Control is off - I want control over any application's access to the internet. (I also have 'Enable Boot Time Protection' set to Aggressive) On startup, a small black square, probably about 10x10 pixels, with the name 'Security Alert', with a Norton Icon appears. No buttons, or any way to get rid of it is available. I assume that Norton blocks the application before the Windows UI starts, so that's probably why this happens. Can anyone comment on a fix (other than re-enable Automatic Program Control, or lower Boot Time Protection level), or can Norton confirm this as a bug?
Hello agentid36
Welcome to the Norton Community Forum
I have mine set to aggressive boot up also and I don't see what you are describing.. However, since you want to see everything that has entered or left your computer, it is difficult to know what you have allowed in or was in your computer.
Can you take a screenn shot of what you are seeing please and post it here. ? Thanks.
I'm assuming that a specific application is causing the behavior, so it may not be easy to not reproduce it on another machine. I have reproduced it on restart three times though, so it was persistent. I reduced the setting from aggressive on my last restart, which resolved the issue that time; I've set it back to aggressive since, so I will update on my next restart.
In the meantime, a complete description: 10x10 pixel window, mostly black, I'm pretty sure it had a lighter border. The window icon in the taskbar was the norton icon, the window name 'Security Alert'. I couldn't close the window from the taskbar. I could click+drag the box around my screen, and use the 'Move' context-menu item to move it around without click+dragging. There were no buttons available on the form (probably just too small). I didn't think to try to tab around the form to see if any enter-button-press events are processed; I'll test that next time, and take a screenshot too.
It hasn't appeared since, so whatever was causing it probably managed to do its thing before Norton was loaded. Norton should probably review their code to see if there's an obvious cause or fix; perhaps delay displaying security alerts.
So the little black window has popped up again; it looks like 4 days in between each occurence. Here are the screenshots:
Box on top of a firefox window (cropped a little)
In the taskbar:
oh, and this box appears to prevent any internet access as well. I can't use firefox to access new web pages (cached works fine).
Hi agentid36,
There is a known issue with the security alert dialog boxes where there is no button to click in order to OK the selected option to block or allow the connection. It sounds like your problem is somehow related, as this issue blocks the internet connection, and the only workaround is to log off and back on. See the following thread:
Hello SendOfJive,
Thanks for the link. I can see how they're related, but the fix does not apply to me; I don't know what application is causing the problem, so I can't create any custom rule for it. No event is placed into the History log since no action was taken one way or the other, and if I turn Boot-Time Protection down from aggressive, Norton isn't active when the application accesses the internet, so no history is logged for it then.
The fix for me is not entirely to log off and back on; the fix is to turn Boot-Time Protection down to normal from aggressive, and then restart. This is not a permanent fix, though; I expect this to occur again in another 4 days (since I've set Boot-Time Protection back to aggressive).
This seems like the exact type of thing aggressive Boot-Time Protection is designed for, but it does not work entirely correctly. Seems like a relatively major security bug to me.