virus scanner

[stj]

just stumbled on this - it may interest people.
http://antiviruslivecd.4mlinux.com/

[Topcat]

Re: virus scanner

I havent used antivirus software since probably around the turn of the century. If you're smart with your network & PC, browse smart, and use a good hosts file, you'll be fine. I do keep my eye peeled for strange behavior or oddball services running. never had an issue.

[stj]

Re: virus scanner

it's a live-disk - it's for cleaning a system that is already stuffed!

[junktv]

Re: virus scanner

Another idea is puppy linux or something on a old thumb drive and install nod32 on it. The down side is it's paid but you could do a trial when you need it. It's what I used on linux when I hosted a server. I thought it was more user friendly than clam or a couple others were were. You can find deals on it also and get 3 year long keys for $30-40.

I'm not pro so i run a av. Even if you try to browse clean you can still run into crap. It blocked some stuff on ebay the other day. They used a pic for the ad description hosted else where.

[momaka]

Re: virus scanner

I havent used antivirus software since probably around the turn of the century. If you're smart with your network & PC, browse smart, and use a good hosts file, you'll be fine. I do keep my eye peeled for strange behavior or oddball services running. never had an issue.

Yeah, it's been a good 6-7 years (or possibly even longer) that I stopped using AV software on my PCs. No more long boot times and annoying high CPU usage. No more virus definition updates at start-up either. Ever since Windows Vista/7 came out, I no longer play around with infected PCs and try to clean them up, because in my experience Windows Vista/7 tends to be much harder to clean up once the virus/malware gets deeply rooted in the OS. With XP, there are many ways to restore just about everything. So for really infected Vista/7 PCs, I just reinstall and call it done.

[Nitro468]

Re: virus scanner

Play with this.... http://www.pendrivelinux.com/univers...easy-as-1-2-3/

Plenty of Antivirus and other utilities on it, with download links to many. Some GREAT stuff here...

[CTekGuy]

Re: virus scanner

i have to say one of my favorite anti virus programs is Avast. i have tried most of the other anti virus programs and for example McAfee seems to let a lot slip past. Nortons is extremely heavy on the system. i have had a little success with 360 but would be my next choice after avast for free anti virus

[Ascaris]

Re: virus scanner

I agree that usually watching what you do with your 'puter will prevent malware from getting on your system, but there are exceptions.

Years ago, I was browsing around looking for information on guitar strings or some other such thing. Apparently, the guitar site had been compromised, as it contained none of the content Google had cached, but instead redirected me to some site whose URL referenced pot, but served up only what appeared to be a blank page. Immediately, my security suite (Outpost Suite; firewall/hips/antimalware) software popped up a "do you want to allow this?" message, as it often did.

Much to my chagrin, I sort of watched as I hit "allow" on the dialog out of habit... and I really was aware of the problem of getting into the habit of saying "yes" all the time, but it was like I was yelling at myself to STOP! in my head while my body was acting on autopilot.

Obviously, I was aware that my system had probably been infected right then, so I quickly hit the tray icon and set Outpost to block all net access. I unplugged the ethernet cable, cutting the PC off from the world, and when I got back in front of the monitor, Outpost had popped up another dialog. I had Outpost set to the most annoying, paranoid mode possible; it asked for permission for every damned little thing. I hit Block and Terminate, then began disinfecting.

I looked in the Outpost log to see what I had allowed, and it was the execution of the .exe malware. The second popup was the malware trying to set registry keys to run itself at boot time. I looked at the location and filename of the program that Outpost stopped from writing to the registry, and there I found the malware. It was not running at that point; Outpost had done its job and terminated it. No unusual processes were running that I could see in the Task Manager or in Advanced Process Terminator.

I scanned that file with Outpost's malware scanner... no hit. I tried a couple more scanners (I have a few at the ready in case I need them, as on-demand scanners only)... nothing.

I sent that file in to a couple of the AV companies using their usual instructions (zip it with a password to get it past the various gateway email scanners), then restored the most recent backup of my system to be certain it was gone. One of the AV companies got back to me a few days later and said it was a new malware that had been added to their database.

What had happened is that the malware had exploited a zero-day in the Java plugin-- now it's common knowledge that Java is a huge security black hole (and hardly ever needed anymore), but I was not aware of any such thing back then. After that I just uninstalled Java and haven't looked back.

The only questionable decision that led to the malware trying to execute was having the plugin set to run automatically. Okay, maybe there were two questionable decisions; I was running Windows XP in administrator mode, which nearly everyone did.

Otherwise, I didn't go to any dodgy sites, I didn't download and run any questionable files, and I didn't fall for any phishing or other social engineering. I was using Firefox, fully updated, and Windows was up to date too.

Even though I robotically hit the wrong button when Outpost popped up the dialog, it had still done its job. It alerted me to the presence of malware that otherwise would have gone unnoticed (including by the virus scanners I had), and it blocked the malware from doing anything once it had executed. What was the purpose of the malware? I don't know. I never had to find out.