Serious flaw in Symantec Antivirus Library

[Spike]

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1903971,00.asp...

Wheeler recommends that users disable the scanning of RAR compressed files, including RAR self-extracting files.

Affected products include Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 8.0, Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition, Symantec AntiVirus for Caching, Symantec AntiVirus for Microsoft Office, Symantec AntiVirus Scan Engine and Symantec BrightMail AntiSpam.

...Basically, it seems that this article is saying that by sending you an email with a specially created RAR attachment, they would be able to comprimise and gain complete control of a computer with default settings without the user even opening the attachement - or even if the user chooses not to even read the email!

Bad. Very bad.

 

[MonkeyMan]

Very unfortunate, but you know, I always went with McAfee, because they always kept me secure lol. You've just got to hate hackers lol.

 

[meNOname]

yeah, ive had bad experiences with symantec...
its left me having to wip emy whole computer and start anew..
and i agree with good ole monkey man..mcafee is the way to go
spybot, and AdAware, if you are looking for free replacements

 

[Spike]

McAffee? Err, I don't think so. Just because AOL provide it, it doesn't make it good.

 

[meNOname]

whoa..AOL and mcafee 2 different things
AOL = garbage
Mcafee = good virus protection

 

[Spike]

OK. I shan't take your word for that, but you have every right to your opinion. My own experience provides me with an obviously different opinion to yours.

 

[meNOname]

ok dont take my full word
but please take part of it
the AOL = garbage..lol

o well good luck with those virus probs

 

[Spike]

Oh, I know AOL is garbage - I've spent long enough fixing its damage. lol

 

[Bender99]

I tend to use products that aren't bloatware. I like VCom System Suite and the built in virus scanner it has.

 

[Julian309]

The same thing happened to me, it made me erase my hard drive.

 

[cyclonicblade]

As long as there are hackers,Spammers and philshers. No Anti-Virus or Ad-Ware program will ever be complete and yes I agree norton has always had some problems but don't the all. Keep a back-up and use the system restore save often. none of them do it all and they are all incompatable with each other.

 

[Spike]

or...

just face the truth - Norton is a useless piece of crap. It's been prooved here time and time again.

 

[cyclonicblade]

Now, Now, It's not completly useless . You can always recomend it to people that U Don't like. So that they are 1.Underprotected 2.Overpaying and 3. Bogging their system resources down puke:

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Yet another reason to avoid Symantec/Norton crapware. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1910077,00.asp

It would seem that they are installing something akin to rootkits as well.

Regards Howard

 

[Bender99]

Hmmm, I thought they were supposed to prevent crap like that? Thanks for the link howard.

 

[iNoob]

Oh man, this just sucks. I use Symantec AV because my university provides it for free. I simply don't want to buy antivirus software. I've used free ones before, like AVG. Does anyone know if AVG is any good?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

The free AVG programme is very good. I`ve been using it myself for quite some time, and have never had any problems with it. I also use the free Zonealarm firewall too.

Regards Howard

 

[Bub]

af

talking about norton, i have that symantec problem that won't let you install you anything, can somebody tell me how to fix it?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

Uninstall Norton, and install the two programmes mentioned above.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:

 

[Bub]

thanks :angel:

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Please note. You may have to uninstall Norton in several bits from add remove programme in control panel.

Also. Download the 2 programmes first, and disconnect from the net.

Only reconnect to the net once Norton is fully uninstalled, and the 2 programmes are installed.

Then update the AVG programme to obtain the latest definitions file.

Once you`ve done all this. You may notice a performance increase in your system.

Regards Howard

 

[Bub]

but i try to delete the norton it says that the symantec location couldn't be found, what do i do?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

By delete. Do you mean uninstall?

There is a utility to help uninstall Norton if you are having problems.

You will need to read the instructions carefully.

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...sf&view=docid&dtype=&prod=&ver=&osv=&osv_lvl=


Regards Howard