A flawed signature update (DAT 5958) from McAfee yesterday (Wednesday) caused the system file svchost.exe to be identified and quarantined as the virus W32/Wecorl.a under Windows XP SP3. This resulted in affected systems rebooting (30 second countdown) and then entering an endless boot loop, repeatedly restarting.
According to McAfee’s user forum, large numbers of businesses are affected. To resolve the problem, the vendor is advising users to download an updated signature (DAT 5959) on an unaffected computer, copy it to a USB drive, restart the affected computer in safe mode with network support (press F8 while booting) and connect the USB drive. Double-clicking on the file 5959xdat.exe will then install the new signature. In most cases, users will then need to restore the svchost.exe file. McAfee has provided instructions for doing so.
From the McAfee Web Site
Corporate Customers
– These entries in our virus information library and the knowledge base provide workarounds for this issue for corporate customers
– Customers are discussing the issue in our online support community
Consumers
– This support page provides information for impacted consumers
– Consumers are also discussing the topic in the online community
To contact McAfee by phone in your region, go to the “Contact Us” page on our Web site and select your country for the correct number.
Read the entire story here.
I found a good fix that doesn’t rely on ‘copy and paste’ or downloading:
See post #382
http://community.mcafee.com/message/125893#125893
Nick,
Thank you for sharing this information!
McAfee is the security of a reliable and dependable
That’s a strong statement considering they never make the top 3 in AV year after year and the latest issue that has surfaced.
I’ve never really used McAfee although it’s brand is always talked about or popular. I hope they get to clean their name after this incident. This may result to less users for McAfee.
Andrew,
It looks like they released a patch right away so things should be fine now.
Thanks writing about Macafee.
Randy @ small business SEO
I think Microsoft Security Essential is enough to protect me, I never feel a need of any paid tool and the way freeware growing don’t thing I will feel the need ever. Feeling sorry for those poor McAfee users.
Arafat,
I am a big fan of Microsoft Security Essential and I use it as well. I recently publish an article about it.
There was a similar flaw with Kaspersky and it detected adsense as a malware. It’s weird from their side! But mistakes happen.. Glad they admitted it. This way they are atleast getting some exposure :P
Rockstar,
They stepped up to the plate and expedited the issue in a timely fashion. They get my props for that.
I know that something similar happened with the bitdefender product for systems on 64 bytes. The Windows had to be reinstalled :)
its amazing…EVERY computer i have had i had McAfee on it and something ALWAYS went wrong…i can safely say McAfee won’t be getting any more of my money in the future :-)
I won’t get near McAfee. For a full Internet Security Solution I have found that Norton Internet Security 2010 is the best thing on the market. While Norton had significant problems in the 2006 – 2008 time frame their current product is robust and easy to use. McAfee – not so much…
Mike,
Norton really improved when they released their 2010 suite. They did score well in the AV test this year.
It is very important when judging about AV software to have a look under the hood YOURSELF. By far the majority of tests done by external instances are still somehow related or sponsored by those products/companies.
Some products get good reports but are in fact real resource hogs, others hook half of anything that runs on your system, others even perform unwanted actions.
One conclusion: take a look under the hood yourself! (Well, that is, if you have the knowledge).
Great source… i want to download 1 year licence key so where can i get plz reply…
You can visit mcafee.com to purchase a license.