In an amusing move that is sure to have caused a few flushed faces, Kaspersky Antivirus recently declared Windows Explorer malicious code. While we've known Explorer to crash from time to time, this treatment seems a bit excessive.
The gaffe came in the form of a routine virus update this past Wednesday night. Kaspersky mistakenly identified Explorer as an infected file. For those not familiar with Windows' internals, Explorer serves as the core of the Windows interface, handling the Desktop, Start bar, and file management. Without this core component, Windows becomes inoperable.
Realizing their mistake, the company pulled the flawed definition about two hours later. However, untold numbers of customers were already experiencing the quarantine, and in some cases deletion of explorer.exe. While this isn't the first time a virus company has make a false positive, it is none the less a serious mistake that will certainly mean serious downtime for some organizations. Or at least, the organizations that haven't switched to Linux or Mac by now.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-22-2007 @ 12:56PM
Nathan said...
The college I attend uses xp, along with Kaspersky on almost all the computers.
I work at the circulation desk as a student worker.(CS major) after this update all the computers went down. they were down for two days before I made a suggestion and the responsible person was able to implement it. (I suggested a Live cd, with explorer.exe on the disc.) before I made the suggestion they were planning on reinstalling the OS on all the systems.
Why didn't the system admin think of this fix? or why am I working at the Circ desk, not in the networking department.?
oh well, it was fun to laugh at their antics.
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12-22-2007 @ 1:48PM
Victoria Web Design said...
GOOD for Kaspersky, now if it would only declare Vista as a virus as well, the Universe would be back in balance.
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12-22-2007 @ 1:53PM
Klink258 said...
At first, I though "hehe, finally serves them-... wait, WINDOWS explorer? not internet?"
Even as a mac user, I know that Windows Explorer > Finder.
Although how it spans throughout the system and controls everything could be considered powerful malicious code, but it's really powerful benign code.
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12-22-2007 @ 3:02PM
Mark said...
Just had to throw in that Mac/Linux endorsement, as if this was Microsoft's fault and not Kaspersky's.
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12-23-2007 @ 8:01PM
Mark said...
"Or at least, the organizations that haven't switched to Linux or Mac by now."
Or at least, the organizations that haven't switched to NOD32 yet. - Fixed.
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