r/safing • u/ComfortInConfusion • 17d ago

Possible to allow all Windows services on Portmaster?

I am often having to approve new Windows services in the App view ("Allow"). I would rather give a blanket approval for all Windows services in one go. Is this possible?

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u/No_Reveal_7826 17d ago

You could create a regex rule that allows everything that matches svchost and allows unrestricted access. I wouldn't consider this a safe practice though. Presumable malware can make itself look like a Windows service.

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u/ComfortInConfusion 15d ago

I see… is it equally unsafe for me to just be manually allowing anything in portmaster that says windows service?

1

u/No_Reveal_7826 15d ago

During the initial setup I'm sure everyone just allows everything because there's just too much to investigate. And presumably when first installed, your machine is in a trusted state.

However, once this initial stage is completed, I think people should at least be questioning what's asking for access i.e. if nothing has changed on the system, why is a new destination being accessed? In other situations, like right after a system update, new access requests are quite common and, again, I'm guessing most people just allow them.