a warning about norton anti-virus!

i just did a total system restore on my computer (i even had to pull the cmos battery) to get rid of a virus called AVENGE,microdefs,norton knows about it and does not care(the inaccurate removal instuctions that don't work are in the profressional version of norton antivirus product help).it mimics the on line updater program that norton uses then disables live update and as a bonus its written in pakastani kurdish(you need a pakstani kurdish translator program to find out what is going on...) and norton anti-virus program DOES NOT check for it....so watch out....i dont use nortons anymore!

 

To confirm that your system is clean you could try following the comprehensive steps found in General Cleaning. The steps mentioned use software that ought to be part of your security, as an absolute minimum.

You may also want to take a look here for further discussion on security and how to make your system that much stronger and here for more.

Hope this helps…

Let us know how you go.

Cheers

 

What is this virus called ? I've looked around and can't find any virus called Avenge Microdefs.

 

the registery entry is in nortons live update it has AVENGE/microdefs./program~in it (BE CAREFUL DONT MESS WITH IT get some knowlageable help with removing it) all i have to say thanks nortons for being so craptacular! any one needs a nortons internet security/AV drink coaster? i spent the 60 bucks getting better security software and had a proffesional comp tech remove it instead of some rude tech guy from nortons telling me what to do over the phone.

 

Avenge Microdefs is not a virus to my knowledge. That is what Symantec calls the virus definitions you download when you use livepdate application.

 

That's what I thought.

 

AVENGE,microdefs

Norton updated today and I have that in their update 2/1/05 .. they DO care . .most of the time!


Suds

 

The original post was JAN 5th....you're saying the finally released a definition for it on Feb 1st!

 

That's what Symantec would do for non-ITW viruses, eh? No wonder their AdWare/Trojan detection is not as good as McAfee or Kaspersky....Maybe they'll add Kaspersky's database of AdWare in 2010 or something....and McAfee's Trojan database in 2006 end?

 

Re: AVENGE,microdefs

Norton has had quite a few problems over the past couple of years with updates.I used to run norton antivirus 2002 edition. I really liked the antivirus. I booted up one day, and norton just crashed. This was due to an update I found out later.

I went to dslreports.com and there were a lot of angry people on there concerning norton. They were having the same problem I was. There computers were crashing. Although it was happening to virtually all makes of norton antivirus. The 2002 version was the one with the most problems. Norton would get there update fixed, and in a few days, computers would start crashing again.

This in turn caused a mass exodus from norton. People started looking for different antivirus products. If I remember correctly, They had changed there updater to verisign. They said that this was causing all the update problems. I got tired of it. Computer would run great for a few days and then crash again.

I left norton and never plan on returning. Everything they produce is nothing but bloatware.There is a bright side to every story though. The 2002 norton antivirus cd makes a good coaster to sit my coffee on, as does nortons 2002 system utilitys cd More Bloatware

I'm not one to bash products. I try to see the good side of everything. However in this case. I can find nothing good to say. One more thing. My cousin purchased there antivirus and firewall suite. He was bragging how good his firewall was. Refferer blocking. etc. I go down to his house as I'm interested in seeing this suite. I asked him if he had checked the firewall at grc, sygate, or pcflank , just to be sure he didn't have any open ports. His answer was no.

So we go to grc. My cousins expensive bloated firewall had 2 ports open. Not to good. Port 5000 was open, and I forgot the other port. I managed to get his port 5000( plug n play) port closed by downloading steve gibsons program to close this port. He asked me what firewall I was using, how much it cost, and was it stealth or closing all ports. I told him I was using sygate, all ports were stealth, and the firewall was free. I told him that zonealarm free and outpost free were allways stealth on my computer, when I had used them in the past. Needless to say, my cousin wasn't happy. We then went to pcflank, we ran the stealth test. Norton failed the stealth test. It responded to 2 different pings. I told him my free sygate had always passed this test, as did zonealarm free. Again he wasn't happy.

 

If I remember correctly the other port would have been 180.

I have helped a few people that will only use Norton, and they have the 2005 version. I noticed the same thing you did at GRC. I think it has something to do with their wormstopper, that takes over the firewall.

 

not sure but here in my shop. Most ssytems come in with norton on them and very few go out with it still on there. I mean they can pick up free products that dont

1) slow the system way down due to bloat
2) allow you get to get exploited weekly

I have seen more virii on ysstems with norton than all the others combined. That includes the free ones also.