In a capture using the Procmon tool, you still see the McShield process working with a file that is excluded, but you will not see McShield perform a READ action on the file.
From monitoring Procmon, you see McShield Open, Query, Set, and Close actions. However, these actions do not indicate a scan because no IRP_MJ_READ action takes place. You see some FASTIO_READ actions, but this also is not an indication of a scan. Therefore, to determine if a scan took place, run Procmon in Advanced Output mode, because not all listed READ actions indicate a scan.
After McShield has determined the file to be excluded, the McAfee AV filter driver is informed and the filter driver records the filename (including path) so that the same file is not processed by McShield again unless the file is modified.
-
Exclude by File Age
You can use this powerful mechanism to potentially increase performance, particularly for On-Demand Scans, with little risk.
Example
Perform a full scan to set a date baseline, then configure a task to scan all files but exclude files modified x days or more ago, and schedule the scan to run every x days.
If x = 2, only files modified within the last 2 days will be scanned.
- Exclusions for Select Processes Only
- You might need to exclude a folder that gets a lot of file I/O traffic, but the risk of exposing this folder for all processes is felt to be too high.
- Lessen the risk by utilizing VirusScan Enterprise multiple scanning profiles, termed Default Processes, High-Risk Processes and Low-Risk processes.
- Add the desired process into a specific profile (High-Risk or Low-Risk) and configure the exclusion for that profile. Only the processes listed in that profile will exclude the specified file or folder.
