System & Technology Integration

Revision: 1| Date: 14 March 2018

SAVAPI 4.9.0 - Release Notes

Table of Contents
SAVAPI 4.9.0 - Release Notes...........................................................1
1. Critical drivers update for Microsoft Windows 10 Redstone 4 (ONLY for
OnAccess).............................................................................................2
2. Integrated optimizations....................................................................2
3.Enhancements and bug fixes...............................................................3

© Avira GmbH & Co. KG | Avira SAVAPI Release Notes| Page 1/3
 System & Technology Integration
Revision: 1| Date: 14 March 2018

This release further tunes the responsiveness of APC (Avira Protection Cloud), especially (but not
only) when SAVAPI is used in the OnAccess mode (upon file access at operating system level).
This practically opens up new usage scenarios reaping the APC benefits such as detection of zero-
day malware using server-side cloud technologies with higher computing power.
Latency, the known penalty for cloud calls, was carefully optimized for each use case so that the
detection is kept high and overall performance is improved. This was a known practical usage
barrier for APC in sensitive user experience scenarios such as OnAccess mode, live-network
traffic and certain OnDemand scenarios.
A better integration of SAVAPI, Engine, and OnAccess drivers has now the net benefit of lower
number of false positive and higher scan speed.
This version includes a critical drivers' compatibility update for the upcoming Microsoft Windows
10 RedStone 4 (RS4) update (scheduled by Microsoft in April 2018).

1. Critical drivers update for Microsoft Windows 10

Redstone 4 (ONLY for OnAccess)
Closely following Microsoft's planned updates for the Windows 10 Operating system, we have
observed that some changes scheduled in upcoming Redstone 4 (RS4) release, 32-bit and 64-bit
architectures, may trigger very severe issues, such as BSOD (blue screen of death) in certain usage
scenarios. We have therefore adapted SAVAPI OnAccess kernel mode drivers to be compatible
with this upcoming release of the Windows 10 platform 32-bit and 64-bit.
All our OEM customers using SAVAPI OnAccess for end-customers on Windows 10 (therefore
candidates for RS4 update) MUST deploy our updated OnAccess drivers on their end-user
computers to avoid the RS4 issues.
For customers properly integrating the auto-update capability of recent versions of SAVAPI, the
update should happen seamlessly, triggering a computer restart once done.

2. Integrated optimizations
• Only for on-access scans (Windows specific):
• APC scan for PE files - only for a risk level (as reported by the local engine) that is
above the configured thresholds, and only upon an attempt to execute the PE file
• APC hash-check scan for non-PE files - completely skipped
• Leveraging new driver capabilities, SAVAPI passes now the OnAccess context to
the local engine, resulting in further local scanning optimizations (increased scan
speed and lower false positive risk)
• Only for on-demand scans:
• APC scans for PE files - only for a risk level (as reported by the local engine) that is
above the configured thresholds
• APC hash-check scan for non-PE files - follows the configured file extension lists,
explicitly or implicitly, regardless of the risk level presence.

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 System & Technology Integration
Revision: 1| Date: 14 March 2018

3.Enhancements and bug fixes

• Skip of the the hash computation for APC filtered files resulting in performance
improvement
• For deep containers recursive level scan, the scan wasn't aborting properly in cases like
scan timeouts causing an APC blackout, in rare situations

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