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One Care running 3 years before detecting this? RRS feed

  • Question

  • This doesn't build much in the confidence department of how well One Care is actually protecting my system.

    I have a very old copy of "Ultimate Boot Disc" stored in a zip file since the days of Windows 2000 that I used once to recover an NT4 system years ago. This file has been setting in a directory on my current system since long before One Care even existed.

    I installed One Care when it was still in its beta stage and have been using it ever since. That was almost 3 years ago and literally thousands of virus scans. Now, after all of this time, just yesterday One Care did a scan and noticed some files that were part of Ultimate Boot Disc... RealVNC, UltraVNC, Angryscan.A and quarantined these files.

    These are not new threats by any means, these files have been untouched on my system for years, and never once after almost 3 years did One Care ever detect them as a risk till just yesterday.

    I just went ahead and deleted it all as I doubt I'll be needing to recover any more NT4 systems anytime soon, but it begs the question of why did it take three years for One Care to finally notice these files were setting there the entire time? I could understand if these were considered new threats that were just discovered, but these files are as I indicated far from being considered "new".
    Monday, May 11, 2009 6:12 AM

Answers

  • Two words - signature updates. The ability for antimalware software to detect threats and take action on them changes constantly.
    -steve


    Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare & Live Mesh Forum Moderator
    Monday, May 11, 2009 12:15 PM
    Moderator

All replies

  • Two words - signature updates. The ability for antimalware software to detect threats and take action on them changes constantly.
    -steve


    Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare & Live Mesh Forum Moderator
    Monday, May 11, 2009 12:15 PM
    Moderator
  • Though Steve's already stated the basic reason, I'll extend the discussion to explain why they were likely only recently added.

    The specific tools mentioned, RealVNC and UltraVNC (I don't personally recognize Angryscan.A) have long been installed as a side effect by a few malware or more commonly by more manual methods once a PC has been compromized.  This has lead to their detection by various anti-malware products as 'Hacking Tools' or the like, even though these VNC tools themselves are simply well known remote control products often used by organizations for indvidual PC remote control.

    Though there's nothing really wrong with these products themselves, if the PC owner didn't install them and is unaware of their presence they might be a danger.  So most likely, the Microsoft detections have recently made a policy change toward these products, especially when they are found only in a 'packed' state such as the zip file where you discovered them.  It's also possible that this very 'Ultimate Boot Disc' has just recently been included within the delivery system of a new malware strain, so it's been included within the detections for that malware as a side effect.

    There's nothing abnormal about any of this, it just creates the unplanned side effect that those already having the package will also see the detection.  Since as with your other Linux tools, the number of OneCare users having such a package on their PC would usually be tiny, there are likely to be very few such detections by OneCare.  However, if these same detections exist within the ForeFront business anti-malware the numbers are likely to be much higher there, since many businesses use these VNC tools for remote management of at least their Linux servers if not other systems.

    OneCareBear


    Windows OneCare Forum Moderator
    Monday, May 11, 2009 4:16 PM
    Moderator
  • Thanks Mr Bear,
    Angry scan is a port scanner and since these are used as recovery software they certainly would also fall into the class of what could be considered hacking tools. A recent update was my first thought, but it seems odd because this software is old, if its considered a threat then that means the exploiters would have been able to utilize this from day one since One Care has been running. I was also reviewing the documentation with this UBCD software package and they indicate that most AV programs will detect "HideExec.exe" and "keyfinder.exe" within the package as security threats. These exact files are still setting there completely un noticed by One Care though. Seems like some old threats have the potential of being recycled and utilized against One Care users. I bet I still have an old copy of "Back Orifice" (yea, I'm old like that) around here somewhere on one of my old laptops, half a mind to try finding it just to see if One Care detects that.
    Tuesday, May 12, 2009 4:49 AM
  • Another issue I didn't mention above is that today virtually no anti-malware application even tries to include the detection of all possible malware, especially older malware like what you mentioned since it only affected an older OS as I recall.  This is partially due to the fact that the newer OS won't be affected and partially that it would badly 'bloat' the detections, resulting in slower operation of the PC.

    The fact that only a few of the specific files within that package were detected makes it even more likely that this was a policy change related to the detected files, since otherwise it should have detected the entire package as a whole.  It's also possible that the file was packed differently, though if it's a normal ZIP file, than it should have used standard packing, so that seems less likely.

    OneCareBear
    Windows OneCare Forum Moderator
    Tuesday, May 12, 2009 2:51 PM
    Moderator