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McAfee Anti-Virus Causes Widespread File Damage
AJ Mexico writes, "[Friday] McAfee released an anti-virus update that contained an anomaly in the DAT file that caused many important files to be deleted from affected systems.
At my company, tens of thousands of files were deleted from dozens of servers and around 2000 user machines. Affected applications included MS Office, and products from IBM (Rational), GreenHills, MS Office, Ansys, Adobe, Autocad, Hyperion, Win MPM, MS Shared, MapInfo, Macromedia, MySQL, CA, Cold Fusion, ATI, FTP Voyager, Visual Studio, PTC, ADS, FEMAP, STAT, Rational.Apparently the DAT file targeted mostly, if not exclusively, DLLs and EXE files." An anonymous reader added, "Already, the SANS Internet Storm Center received a number of notes from distressed sysadmins reporting thousands of deleted or quarantined files. McAfee in response released advice to restore the files. Users who configured McAfee to delete files are left with using backups (we all got good backups... or?) or System restore."
I need virus protection from my virus protection!
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
That Microsoft Anti-Virus will be deleting McAfee from the system? And, to be on the safe side, also Norton?
I seriously did a double take and had to check the calendar to make sure...
If only McAfee had quarantined itself before this disaster, it would have worked perfectly!
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
There's gotta be a way to blame this on Bush. Somehow he was responsible.
Quiet you, we'll have no reasonable thoughts in THIS house!
Closed source is teh $at4n... go linux, w00t!
At last a good AV software removing those virii-ridden bloatware from your computer :)
Why are people complaining ?
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
... by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13, @09:07AM (#14906906)
All I can say is 'wait 'til monday.'
Heh, now that's funny.
Don't worry, just install the new patched version of McAfee. I believe the internal name for this release is called Skynet.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
I had a TEXT file deleted by McAfee just a few days ago. The "virus" that it identified was a different one from the one in this article too. Unfortunately, in the version of VirusScan I have (came with Dell computer) there's practically no configurable options, so I have no way to set it to quarantine instead of delete.
Ummm...Whoops?
This guy's the limit!
I use McAfee and My system is working fi
No matter where you go, there you are.
The files they are gone. It seems McAfee ate them. The backup saved us. or The files they are gone. It seems McAfee ate them. Go home from work now.
A Passionate Independent Musician
I guess the Mac & 'nix freaks are right, Windows really is a virus.
But aren't viruses meant to be small and efficient? O.o
Don't take the above poster too seriously. He doesn't.
[deep bass voice]It's a world where companies wage a security suite war on other companies. The battlefield is your own desktop. Imagine Mysantec's antivirus attempting to delete Facamee's antivirus, before being both obliterated by Sicromoft's security solution still in beta. Wouldn't it be fun to watch as your CPU cycles get all pulled into the fight, with rampant defense software running around your RAM and filesystem, killing each other out, filling your desktop space, and celebrating victory with funny alerts, baloons, dialogs, pop-ups, windows, and what not, all reaching for you attention? Ah, talk about an exciting desktop! (And really, what could be more boring that a computer that just works and leaves you with nothing to do except to work with it?)
[special effects]
In the ensuing destruction and chaos, nothing remains alive but two things: the memory of your once existing data, and an unidentified hideous sneaky polar bird determined to show you of an alternate dimension of reliability and freedom...
[epic music]
Coming soon, on your desktop: RealityArts presents: THE SOFTWARE WARS, EPISODE 442.75
[/deep bass voice]
Actually it sounds like they are doing a great job. They finally targetted the biggest virus of them all, Windows. Maybe this is the start of something really good. Finally the Windows virus is being actively targetted.
Just update your virusses and you will be safe. Errr...
My antivirus ate my homework :(
What, were you out of batteries for your cattle prod? :)
Microsoft has just released their much anticipated hands-free cordless mouse. Warning, it may hurt a little at first.
[Team Leader]: So Steve is new here so, Bob, why don't you show him a simple virus definition for one of these low-priority viruses?
[Bob]: Sure. This virus is low-threat but can masquarade as numerous file names so why don't you just look for a common pattern and write a REGEXP function?
[Steve]: Sure.
[Bob]: You know how to write regular expressions, right?
[Steve]: Yeah, sure, the one's with the asterisks.
[Bob]: Erm, yeah. I'll leave you to it. Just send it to the database so it can get filed in the next update.
[Steve]: OK, see you later.
*Looks around nervously. Briefly glances at long list of file names then timidly enters:*
*.EXE