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Message: "Norton has blocked an exploit attack"

Applicable for: Windows

This message appears when Protective Exploit Protection (PEP) feature detects and blocks a potential threat on your computer.

What is Proactive Exploit Protection (PEP)?

Norton Security users running Norton's Windows client - 22.5.4 or newer, benefit from the introduction of a new protection framework called Proactive Exploit Protection (PEP) that aims to better protect Windows devices from so-called "zero-day" attacks - attacks that attempt to exploit undiscovered and unpatched holes (or vulnerabilities) in Windows applications or in the operating system itself. PEP features three powerful protection techniques that will stop several types of prevalent zero-day attacks in their tracks.

What can Proactive Exploit Protection do to protect against the threat of zero-day attacks?

Norton's Proactive Exploit Protection technology works by recognizing a range of malicious behaviors that are common trademarks of zero-day attacks and subsequently blocking only software that exhibits those specific behaviors. One of the most exciting aspects of this approach is that it provides protection against attacks the moment the vulnerable software is deployed, not if and when a vulnerability is eventually discovered or attacked. This is significant, because as it turns out, most zero-day attacks take advantage of vulnerabilities that have existed for many months and in some cases years without having been previously discovered.

There are chances that PEP might detect some genuine files as threats. These are known as False Positives. To know more, read Respond to incorrect Norton alerts that a file is infected or a program or website is suspicious.

DocID: v116859671
Last modified: 04/24/2025

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