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Flawed McAfee update paralyzes corporate PCs
Network World ^ | 4/21 | Gregg Keizer

Posted on 04/21/2010 1:29:45 PM PDT by Battle Hymn of the Republic

A flawed McAfee antivirus update sent enterprise administrators scrambling today as the new signatures quarantined a crucial Windows system file, crippling an unknown number of Windows XP computers, according to messages on the company's support forum.

The forum has since gone offline.

(Excerpt) Read more at networkworld.com ...


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KEYWORDS: mcafee; microsofttax
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To: nagdt

Agreed!


21 posted on 04/21/2010 1:35:59 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (I don't have a 'Cousin Pookie'.)
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo

Norton, especially with the Net and Firewall products, has crippled several I have had to try to recover.


22 posted on 04/21/2010 1:36:14 PM PDT by Ingtar (Obama's favorite carol: Hark The Herald Angels Sing About Me)
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To: 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
I hear a lot of Intel Corp is down because of this...

Mcafee owns most of the corporate market share for endpoint antivirus, so this will probably be really bad for them.

now they need to find out if it was accident or malicious.

23 posted on 04/21/2010 1:37:21 PM PDT by Battle Hymn of the Republic
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To: driftdiver

Yup. The little update window just popped up again. Told it to put any updates on hold for 36 hours. Whew!


24 posted on 04/21/2010 1:37:27 PM PDT by EBH (Our First Right...."it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,")
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To: cynwoody

“All you need is a firewall and a little common sense. Don’t run stuff from unknown sources and you will be OK.”

While that will take care of about 90% it isn’t a good plan. Well known and reputable websites get hacked. If you visit them your computer will be infected without some kind of defense. This bypasses the firewall because it rides port 80 through your browser, which is enabled.


25 posted on 04/21/2010 1:38:41 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: ConservativeMind

Avast, AVG and Comodo are all good.


26 posted on 04/21/2010 1:39:33 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: Battle Hymn of the Republic
McAfee software goes berserk, misidentifies harmless file and locks up PCs around the world
27 posted on 04/21/2010 1:40:36 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo (FR.......Monthly Donors Wanted.)
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To: ReneeLynn

AVG misses 5.8% of current malware.

The best misses 0.4% (G.DATA) and the best free one misses 0.7%.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=144&Itemid=152


28 posted on 04/21/2010 1:40:43 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (Hypocrisy: "Animal rightists" who eat meat & pen up pets while accusing hog farmers of cruelty.)
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To: 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten

Yep - this one has hit my outfit as well. Nasty. And it was out far earlier than the article claims.


29 posted on 04/21/2010 1:42:17 PM PDT by Noumenon ("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)
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To: EBH
I have mcAfee and haven’t run today’s updates...hummmm...

Don't let it update your definitions! You'll get horked for sure.

For those affected, the problem is that Macafee ends up deleting the svchost file from the WINNT\system32 directory.

If your taskbar is missing and your desktop just doesn't look right, you have been affected by the Macafee definition update that has deleted the svchost.exe file from the WINNT directory.

This is the fix:

  1. Look in C:\WINNT\system32 to see if the file svchost.exe is missing.
  2. If it does not exist, continue. If it does, you have a different problem.
  3. Open a command prompt. To access command prompt if taskbar is not visible, press Windows+R key and type 'cmd'
  4. Type the following and press Enter; cd c:\winnt\i386
  5. Type the following and press Enter; expand svchost.ex_ c:\winnt\system32\svchost.exe
  6. Reboot computer.
  7. If "shutting down now" message appears, go to run command and type the following and press Enter to abort shutdown; shutdown -a
  8. Reboot computer again.

My company was hit by this and this has been the fix for my desktop and many others.

30 posted on 04/21/2010 1:42:17 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.)
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To: cynwoody
I don't use virus software either. It is a racket. However my 10 year old clicked on some security scan malware and infected her XP box. I couldn't get rid of it so i ran Comcast's McAfee virus protection and that did the trick...

Now the computer won't even boot up in safe mode...It was 8 years old...now it awaits a trip to the recycle bin.

31 posted on 04/21/2010 1:43:28 PM PDT by BreezyDog
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To: driftdiver

I beg to differ, but AV-comparatives.org has done a recent test on Avast and Comodo.

On Avast, it last tested in August of last year and it missed 2% of all then-current malware, versus 0.2% for G.DATA and 0.6% for Avira (the free one doesn’t miss any important stuff from their retail one).

http://www.av-comparatives.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=144&Itemid=152


32 posted on 04/21/2010 1:45:33 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (Hypocrisy: "Animal rightists" who eat meat & pen up pets while accusing hog farmers of cruelty.)
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To: Battle Hymn of the Republic

Has not bothered my Linux machine.


33 posted on 04/21/2010 1:46:25 PM PDT by taxcontrol
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To: Battle Hymn of the Republic; rdb3; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; GodGunsandGuts; CyberCowboy777; Salo; ...

34 posted on 04/21/2010 1:46:53 PM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: ConservativeMind

I shall check them out.


35 posted on 04/21/2010 1:47:02 PM PDT by ReneeLynn (Socialism is SO yesterday. Fascism, it*s the new black. Mmm Mmm Mmm.)
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To: driftdiver

Several years ago I used McAfee. It was okay, but became bloatware and slowed my system to a crawl.

About that time, they offered a ‘free’ firewall program. I installed it. Didn’t like. Uninstalled.

Every 2-3 months, I would get a pop-up asking me to re-try the firewall.

I deleted everything McAfee I could find on my system. I even scanned the registry and deleted everything McAfee.

The pop-up persisted.

The only was I finally got rid of it was when I had to reformat the drive and reinstall Windows due to some driver conflicts caused by/with Real Player and my PCTV card.

I will never allow McAfee on any computer of mine!

[My cable internet offers it free for clients, but I am currently using Avast! which I like.]


36 posted on 04/21/2010 1:50:23 PM PDT by TomGuy
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To: BreezyDog
However my 10 year old clicked on some security scan malware and infected her XP box. I couldn't get rid of it so i ran Comcast's McAfee virus protection and that did the trick...

If you have kids, it's best to put them on their own machines and on their own network, so their computers can't get to yours without going through your firewall. Kids' curiosity exceeds their judgment. And be sure not to let them use any computer you use for anything sensitive, like banking / brokerage or work.

Now the computer won't even boot up in safe mode...It was 8 years old...now it awaits a trip to the recycle bin.

You could probably rescue it by reinstalling XP from scratch ... if you wanted to.

37 posted on 04/21/2010 1:52:56 PM PDT by cynwoody
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To: BreezyDog

“Now the computer won’t even boot up in safe mode...It was 8 years old...now it awaits a trip to the recycle bin.”

If you’re going to do that... might you be willing to give Linux a try on it? Ubuntu (www.ubuntu.com) is an easy-to-use variant that might breathe some new life into that now-dead PC.


38 posted on 04/21/2010 1:52:57 PM PDT by GCC Catholic (0bama, what are you hiding? Just show us the birth certificate...)
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To: Battle Hymn of the Republic

Some of the anti-virus programs are worse than the viruses. They believe their program is more important than anything you might be using your computer for and dominates your processor.

I’ve been happy with AVG and Zone Alarm at home but my work computer gets hijacked all the time by Windows and Norton updates and to hell with you if you can’t sit there and wait on them to do their thing.


39 posted on 04/21/2010 1:53:02 PM PDT by OrangeHoof (Washington, we Texans want a divorce!)
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To: Battle Hymn of the Republic

I don’t run McAfee. I use . . . but that would be telling.


40 posted on 04/21/2010 1:55:12 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Judas Iscariot - the first social justice advocate. John 12:3-6)
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