Maybe OT? March 10, IDG News Service - (International) Bad Symantec update leads to trouble. Symantec says a buggy diagnostic program spurred a rash of Norton antivirus user complaints on March 9 and 10. Problems started around 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time on March 9, when Norton Internet Security and Norton Antivirus 2006 and 2007 users started receiving error messages connected to a Symantec software update that tried to download a program called PIFTS.exe. "In a case of human error, the patch was released by Symantec 'unsigned,' which caused the firewall user prompt for this file to access the Internet," wrote a Symantec spokesman in a forum post explaining the problem. Users reported that Norton's own firewall software was popping up error messages asking them if they wanted to install the PIFTS.exe file. Norton's firewall would have let it pass, had it been digitally signed. The update was available for about three hours and was pushed out to a small, "limited number" of Norton users, said a group product manager of consumer products with Symantec. PIFTS (Product Information Framework Troubleshooter) is a diagnostic program that Symantec periodically sends out to users to anonymously collect information such as the operating system and version number of the product being used in order to get a snapshot of its user base. The troublesome, unsigned PIFTS.exe file is no longer being distributed, but it never represented any kind of security threat, the group product manager said. "If a user would have accepted it they should have been fine, and if they declined it they should have been fine."
________________________________________ From: David Lum [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 3:13 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: NOD32 FP "NOD screwing up doesn't make Symantec not suck." This gets my vote for quote of the week. David Lum // SYSTEMS ENGINEER NORTHWEST EVALUATION ASSOCIATION (Desk) 971.222.1025 // (Cell) 503.267.9764 From: Tim Vander Kooi [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 10:17 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: NOD32 FP Yes it sure does. NOD screwing up doesn't make Symantec not suck. Sorry. TVK From: HELP_PC [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 12:15 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: R: NOD32 FP Oh , isn't Symantec ! GuidoElia HELPPC ________________________________________ Da: Andy Ognenoff [mailto:[email protected]] Inviato: martedì 10 marzo 2009 14.20 A: NT System Admin Issues Oggetto: NOD32 FP Anyone hit by this? http://www.eset.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5839&Itemid=2 "Unfortunately, an error in the heuristics module, coupled with the specific virus signature database update, caused ESET to incorrectly identify several Windows operating system files, including dllhost.exe and msdtc.exe, as being infected with Win32/Kryptik.JX." - Andy O. ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
