Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      16 Aug 96 20:40:22 EDT
From:      "Jose F. Reyes" <70573.1405@CompuServe.COM>
To:        All <questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Virus alert on FreeBSD?
Message-ID:  <960817004022_70573.1405_CHU58-1@CompuServe.COM>

next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Hello!

I just downloaded the McAfee Viruscan software for FreeBSD and watched in horror
how it detected the SYSLOG virus on a number of files on my system. Even worse,
it claimed it had 'no remover available'. This happend mostly on gzipped man
pages, but there were a few source code, object (.o) and executable files
reported as well.

A couple of weeks ago I had a hard time doing a 'make world' after downloading
the DES code from ftp.freebsd.org. It kept aborting at different places, and
always for no reason, for example would complain about not finding a file that
was actually present where it was supposed to. It never  completed successfully
because after 3 days and 15+ attempts, I gave up. Now this virus alert gives me
a possible explanation for the phenomenon.

Can I trust the FreeBSD version of McAfee Viruscan, or are these reports
incorrect? I do trust the DOS, Windows and NT versions. How safe is FreeBSD from
viruses?  If in fact my system is infected, how do I clean files for which
McAfee has no remover available? Any guidance will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Jose




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?960817004022_70573.1405_CHU58-1>