ARM Support on Windows for Bitdefender Solutions

Windows on ARM (WoA) goes back a long way, it is a growing hardware and application ecosystem with 2022 seeing significant momentum across the Windows on ARM ecosystem. Whether it’s an increasing number of new applications, developer kits and tools, or devices, WoA is gathering pace and looks set to become a disruptive force in the global laptop market.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon® System on a Chip (SoC) platform provides a powerful foundation for Chromebooks and Windows laptops, purpose-built for performance, connectivity, and battery life.

An SoC (System-on-a-Chip) is a complete processing system contained in a single package that contains multiple processing parts. The main components of an SoC typically include a central processing unit, memory, input and output ports, peripheral interfaces, and secondary storage devices.

As always new chipsets introduce different system architectures, which can affect compatibility. Windows computers powered by ARM provide great application compatibility, allowing you to run unmodified software through a seamless emulation layer on ARM devices.

In fact, many leading applications are now available natively on WoA devices. These vary from productivity and connectivity applications like Zoom, Facebook Messenger and the Office 365 suite, through to video streaming and gaming applications like Netflix, Amazon Prime and the Xbox app. A suite of Adobe applications is also available natively on WoA, including Photoshop, Lightroom and, more recently announced, Fresco and Acrobat. After being ported to ARM64, all these provide high-quality Windows experiences whether it’s for work or play.

Thanks to Microsoft’s Project Volterra there is an increasing robust platform for developers, who are embracing WoA, realising it’s a platform with enormous potential to transform the computing landscape.

Malware on ARM

It may seem obvious to say but malware authors are just as able to run traditional binaries (executable applications) via the emulation layer, and if they wish they can also recompile their malware for ARM32 or ARM64. With the x64 emulation layer Windows on ARM, the entire spectrum of x64-based malware is available for attackers to target and exploit this different attack surface. While some x64 (and x86) malware binaries will be hampered – or not be able to run at all – via emulation, other malware, having only simple functionality, can be expected to run without issues on the Windows on ARM platform. The same applies to malicious scripts, so long as there is a suitable script interpreter.

Of course, many types of attacks – such as malicious websites, spam, phishing and scams – do not care at all about which operating system or hardware platform potential victims might be using.

Users deserve better protection against these threats and tricks. Therefore, keep security in mind just as much as your favorite applications if experimenting with, or adopting, Windows on ARM64 devices.

Bitdefender ARM support

At the start of 2023 Bitdefender added support for Windows ARM64 CPUs to its GravityZone Portfolio, supporting vital features for the prevention and detection of security incidents:

The Antimalware protection layer is based on security content scanning and heuristic analysis (B-HAVE, ATC) against viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, adware, keyloggers, rootkits and other types of malicious software.

Tunable Machine Learning provided modern stealth attack detection technology against threats such as zero-day attacks, advanced persistent threats (APT), obfuscated malware, fileless attacks (misuse of PowerShell, Windows Management Instrumentation etc.), credential stealing, targeted attacks, custom malware, script-based attacks, exploits, hacking tools, suspicious network traffic, potentially unwanted applications (PUA) and ransomware.

Network Attack Defence focuses on detecting network attacks designed to gain access on endpoints through specific techniques, such as: brute-force attacks, network exploits, password stealers, drive-by-download infection vectors, bots, and Trojans.

eXtended Detection and Response (XDR) brings together device, user and system intelligence across your enterprise network, delivering detection of attacks for sources across your business, with individual sensors across productivity applications, in the cloud, your network and more.

ARM support is also available on these other key features: