lsass.exe

[Ron]

I am having a problem on my win 2k laptop -- sorry I can't
research this more, but my only pc continues to reboot
every several minutes. I get an error message pointing to
c:\winnt\system32\lsass.exe -- It tells me my computer
must restart, then restarts my machine.

I know this is a very vague question, but can anyone give
me info on what this particular file does, and how I may
resolve? thanks for any advice that can be offered.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

You've been infected by the Sasser worm. This means you didn't apply Windows
Updates (at least not very recently - patch for this came out April 13) and
don't have a firewall enabled....

If you can't stop your computer from restarting:

As soon as your computer reboots and Windows loads, click Start, then Run.
In the box, type the following:

shutdown -a (then click OK)

Then see http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/sasser.asp and
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-011.mspx

McAfee's Stinger tool claims to remove Sasser:
http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

Enable your XP firewall (or get a third party one if not on XP or even if
so - www.zonealarm.com has a free one) and run Windows Update regularly to
keep your OS patched to the gills. You also need good antivirus software and
need to keep it updated regularly. The patch for this exploit was released
April 13th...but there are plenty you do need. Perhaps want to enable the
autoupdate feature of Windows Update.