[By NBC-1TV H. J Yook]Malwarebytes today announced the launch of Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit, a new technology designed to protect companies and home users from the growing threat of known and unknown zero-day exploits, which effectively bypass traditional security software.

Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit is designed to protect against vulnerabilities in mass-market applications such as browsers, Java, document readers, media players and others. These vulnerabilities are increasingly targeted by malicious actors as part of Advanced Persistent Threats and used to breach corporations and target critical infrastructure. They are also used to infect personal computers with banking trojans and ransomware.

Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit for Business can be deployed in any organization through the new Malwarebytes Management Console, providing management and centralized reporting of all protected endpoints. Home users have access to a free version that protects against vulnerabilities in browsers, add-ons and Java, or a $24.95 Premium version, which adds additional protection for PDF readers, Microsoft Office and media players, and allows users to add protection for custom third-party applications.

Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit stops known and unknown zero-day exploits by using advanced technology to protectively ‘shield’ at-risk applications and stop them from executing malicious code without relying on whitelisting, blacklisting or sandboxing. Three separate layers of defense are used, actively guarding against OS security bypasses, protecting exploits executing from memory and stopping applications from running malicious payloads.

With these three layers working in harmony with one another, Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit has the necessary sophistication to counteract today's increasingly complex targeted zero-day attacks, which are often more advanced than the security software trying to stop them.

As Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit works proactively to block typical exploit behaviors, it requires no signature from an initial breach. This is counter to traditional reactive security software, which cannot detect zero-day exploits as it relies on signatures analyzed after an initial data breach. This leaves home users and companies completely exposed until the manufacturer of the vulnerable application issues a patch, which can take days or even weeks.

Marcin Kleczynski, Malwarebytes' CEO, said, “Exploits have been responsible for a lot of headlines recently as they are a highly effective way of stealing confidential data from people and businesses. After researching thousands of vulnerabilities and exploits, we are confident that Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit will help mitigate some of this risk.”

Kleczynski added: “With the advanced threat landscape becoming increasingly exploit-led, this new proactive technology puts people and companies back on solid ground. This is especially important for those still running Windows XP.”

As it requires no signature database, Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit demands minimal system resources and interaction, being designed to run silently in the background. The shielding techniques used are specifically tailored for each separate application, reducing false positives and conflicts. Unlike other exploit mitigation tools, Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit also incorporates protection against attacks that involve sandbox escapes.

A recent test by respected Exploit Kit researcher and tracking expert, Kafeine, from malware.dontneedcoffee.com has shown the Free version of the software to successfully prevent infection from a multitude of exploits found ‘in the wild.’