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Symantec Caught in Norton 'Rootkit' Flap


ScubaSteve

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For anyone foolish enough to use Norton garbage.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1910077,00.asp

i had to laugh when i read this because i have always told anybody who uses norton that theyre pc is not safe, the antivirus/firewall is piss poor in the first place. To read about them admitting to installing rootkits and making the host system even more unsafe is just a joke.

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God, I hate Symantec. I haven't touched Norton Anti-Virus since the 2002 version, and advise all my "clients" (I do tech support for people on the side) to switch to Avast, since it's more resource-friendly, has better updates, and is free. :)

edit: frankly I find Norton's inclusion on the Google Pack a little suspect, considering that Google claims they neither gave nor received any money for including things on the Pack. For one thing, all the other software in there is "free for life", not only 6 months, and to my knowledge, you can't download the 6 month trial anywhere else except the Google Pack.. suspect..

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Well Ic3, I am convinced that Norton sucks arse.. I had to re-install my OS yesterday and Norton IS 2005 reverted back to 2004. Since it downgraded to what came with my PC, I went ahead and uninstalled it. While searching for a replacement, I went ahead and installed Clamwin so I could be somewhat safe while researching a new Internet Security system. I did a scan and it picked up a virus that Norton 2005 missed on a ...uh..."registration assistance" app :) I had this app on my PC since around the summer time. I had Norton set to scan my HD every Friday. So Norton missed it for 5-6 months straight!! And I had all updates for Norton.....

So Clamwin for the win (for now). Now im off to find a halfway decent software firewall. (been searching the "Great appz u use" and "tiny appz" thread....)

P.S. Now my Task Manager list is smaller with Norton gone.....I knew about the 5-7 different processes running, (I just never mentioned em when debating about Norton. Animorc let the cat out the bag in one of his post, tho) :P I also knew how to config Norton so I didnt feel the pinch from it hogging resources.

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Well..it's common knowledge that the Norton products went downhill as soon as Peter Norton sold his (by then) groundbreaking programs to Symantec

I just know all the years...whenever I had to deal with Symantec, it caused trouble

This Clamwin...does it by now include any real time/online scanner?

I looked at it before and it really looked promising (We even included it in our freeware-security pack)

My all time fav in Antivir still is Kaspersky....but that one isn't free

-DG

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Yeah, more and more I find myself using Clamwin instead of Symantec Corp 10. Clamwin just flat out detects more. It does spyware too. On a badly infected machine I usually boot up with BartPE, run Clamwin from a thumb drive, then reboot, and 9 times out of 10 the PC is now clean. Just have to use autoruns or an automatic registry cleaner to clean up the registry entries pointing to the now-missing files. Other than that, you're usually good to go.

-Ares

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I use McAfee, it hasn't failed my like Norton has. I got a new virus within 10 hours of a live update with Norton. I lost a whole HD to a virus once with Norton. I ditched it for McAfee Antivirus & Firewall and I've been virus free for 6 years since. :) Plus McAfee is faster. :P

Here a very nice free anti virus that I use for myself and my clients. (I'm a certified repair technician & network admin) AVG Personal They offer a full range of features including real time protection, a very nice email scanner, and daily to weekly updates.

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something interesting I read today at work:

http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,124365,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp

Seems like Symantec is not alone in this type of deceptive business......I wonder how many other big name companies are doing this? Will more be found out about?

Sony, Symantec, Kaspersky....whose next?

Oh. I installed ZoneAlarm Suite. The Antivirus and Antispyware missed some software I have on my PC that triggers alerts from antivirus and spyware apps. (its some monitoring software that includes a keylogger. And its only for monitoring MY pc..so be quiet :P ) But again, Clamwin found it...So the ZoneAlarm firewall only for me.

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This "rootkit" isn't as bad as it's been made out to be, it's not the same as the Sony rootkit thing. It's just that now everyone knows the word so everything is ROOTKIT ROOTKIT ROOTKIT OMFG!

I bet the free edition won't run on Windows Server 2003 (what I run on my laptop)...

Why do you run a server OS on your laptop?

Having said that, I use avast (though I don't use the on-access "protection" 'cos on-access wastes your resources) because of the excellent incremental updates. You can actually update it without a hassle on a dialup connection.

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Why do you run a server OS on your laptop?

Cause it friggin flies ;) Seriously, it's SO much faster than XP. And unlike XP I haven't felt the need to reformat my drive every year or two. It just works. Period. This is what XP should have been. Quite frankly, I can't believe it came from Microsoft. :P

Nice little guide: http://www.msfn.org/win2k3/

I also fine-tuned my services and turned off a bunch of stuff I don't need. :D

-Ares

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It seems to get painfully slow on others' computers, but that's never happened to me. Everyone else I know feels the need to reformat every 6 months or so.

I was at a computer today that was INCREDIBLY slow, running XP with no malware or anything on it that I could detect. I uninstalled NIS (utter shit, even worse than just NAV) and that sped it up some, but it was still pretty painful. It was a 2.66Ghz Pent4 + 256MB RAM with 64MB integrated video that hasn't been reformatted since it was new. My laptop isn't much better but it was still MUCH faster than that.

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@Splintax: Yeah, I know what you mean. You really should check out running Server 2003 though. If your XP flies, I still say 2003 will perform even faster ;)

The reason I usually reformat every 1 to 2 years is because I end up installing / uninstalling a lot of software. Even with registry cleaners on XP, it just seems to get slow. Now a days I use virtual machines to give my OS a break ;) But regardless, Win2000 and Win2003 just seem to clean up better than XP does. I can't really put it to words other than it just seems to happen to machines that look completely clean. And remarkably, after turning off extra server services on 2003, it seems to run much quicker on older machines than XP does.

I was an avid Windows 2000 user for a long time. When XP came out, it just seemed so bloated. It had so much "fluff" that I didn't see as necessary. I guess that's why I fell in love with Win2003 when it came out. I say it's what WinXP should have been.

You might try some registry cleaners. I prefer WinASO's software myself. It helps XP machines (and 2003).

-Ares

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It's not really the theme. I enabled the theme service and patched my uxtheme.dll. It's still quite zippy, whereas XP would lag. I think it's a combination between System Restore (disabled in 2003 by default), and poor file cache management. Though I also had System Restore disabled in XP. But you're also more likely to *need* System Restore in XP than 2003, I've found ;)

But yeah, to each his own. But don't knock it 'til you try it :D

-Ares

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