Suggestions for antivirus apps to carry on a CD

[Tim Murray]

As a Mac user I've been out of the Windows loop for a while. A friend now
wants me to stop by and run some antivirus apps as he is positive he is
infected. What would you suggest for a set of apps to put on a CD to carry
with me?

 

[Whoever]

As a Mac user I've been out of the Windows loop for a while. A friend
now wants me to stop by and run some antivirus apps as he is positive
he is infected. What would you suggest for a set of apps to put on a
CD to carry with me?

FWIW - here are my suggestions:

MalwareBytes AntiMalware
http://malwarebytes.org/
http://forums.malwarebytes.org/index.php?showtopic=3436 (for current
database)

SuperAntispyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/
http://www.superantispyware.com/definitions.html (for current database)

GMER Antirootkit
http://www.gmer.net/
(and I recommend you get the MBR.exe rootkit detector while you're there)

AntiVir
http://www.free-av.com/en/download/index.html
http://dl.antivir.de/down/vdf/ivdf_fusebundle_nt_en.zip (for current
database)

------------------------------------------------------

Here are some other programs you may find useful as well:

Autoruns & Process Explorer
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062.aspx

LSPFix
http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm


IF they are running Windows XP, this may come in real handy to restore
the .exe filetype association -
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/xp_exe_fix.reg


It's also helpful to carry a disk you can use to boot their system and
access their file system from. Something like:

Bart's PE
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

 

[Tim Murray]

FWIW - here are my suggestions:

Thanks much.

 

[s|b]

As a Mac user I've been out of the Windows loop for a while. A friend now
wants me to stop by and run some antivirus apps as he is positive he is
infected. What would you suggest for a set of apps to put on a CD to carry
with me?

I've never used it, but maybe you find it useful:

F-Secure Rescue CD
<http://www.f-secure.com/en_EMEA/security/tools/rescue-cd/>

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Tim Murray" <[email protected]>


| Thanks much.


I wouldn't suggest a CD. It is Read-Only media.

Use a Flash Drive. It can hold the anount of a DVD or more and it is
Random-Ream/Random-Write so you can update/replace utilities at-will.

 

[Tim Murray]

I've never used it, but maybe you find it useful:

F-Secure Rescue CD
<http://www.f-secure.com/en_EMEA/security/tools/rescue-cd/>

Okay, thanks.

 

[Tim Murray]

I wouldn't suggest a CD. It is Read-Only media.

Use a Flash Drive. It can hold the anount of a DVD or more and it is
Random-Ream/Random-Write so you can update/replace utilities at-will.

Yeah, but I was concerned about a flash drive being infected, too.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Tim Murray" <[email protected]>



| Yeah, but I was concerned about a flash drive being infected, too.


There are flash drives with a switch that makes them Read-Only.

 

[David Kaye]

FWIW - here are my suggestions:

Funny, those all programs I carry on my own disks. To those I'll add Avast,
SpySweeper (an early version that is not detected by most malware), Hijack
This, and PrcView.exe, which is also not detected by most malware.

 

[David Kaye]

I wouldn't suggest a CD. It is Read-Only media.

Use a Flash Drive. It can hold the anount of a DVD or more and it is
Random-Ream/Random-Write so you can update/replace utilities at-will.

Nope, I suggest a CD. I infected a flash drive with malware from a customer's
computer and accidentally installed the malware on another client's computer.
It was horrific.

It doesn't matter if the flash drive is "read only", well-written malware can
get past that.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "David Kaye" <[email protected]>


| Nope, I suggest a CD. I infected a flash drive with malware from a customer's
| computer and accidentally installed the malware on another client's computer.
| It was horrific.

| It doesn't matter if the flash drive is "read only", well-written malware can
| get past that.


If a switch on a flash drive is set to RO (assuming there is a hardware switch), no
malware can write to it.

 

[Whoever]

From: "Tim Murray" <[email protected]>



| Yeah, but I was concerned about a flash drive being infected, too.

There are flash drives with a switch that makes them Read-Only.

That's how I carry them but the OP seemed to be doing a one-time only type
of operation. In a case like that, a CD-R makes more sense. Especially
since finding flash drives with physical write-protect switches is becoming
more difficult these days.