OT - Virus

[Bob S.]

I did post this in the two virus related newsgroups and only had one guess
that it might be a java related virus.

Had a system that had a virus that had an animated character show up. I only
saw it once for about 3 seconds and the best I can describe it is that it
looked like a cave-man character with long arms and knuckles that dragged
along the floor (musta been from Buffalo...).

It stopped NAV, and could I could not reload NAV. Kept getting a message
that stated "some program or virus is preventing NAV from loading". Tried
every trick I could think of and that I could find on Symantec's site but
nothing I did would allow NAV to be reinstalled. Did the online virus
check, no problems found and also tried the McAfee stinger routine -
nothing.

Since my niece is transporting files back and forth to college classes
(she's learning MS Office) using a zip disc, I'm thinking it may have been a
macro doing it but macro security was intact and after reloading everything
and finally getting NAV up again, it found nothing on the zip drive files.

Anyone seen a virus lately that disables NAV and has an animated character
that walks across the screen - then exits after smiling at you?

Curious,

Bob S.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

You might want to check with Symantec tech support, they have a lot on their
site and they used to have their own support boards.

In the mean time, try using System Restore to take you back to a time prior
to when this began, that might resolve it or at least get you started.
Start\All Programs\Accessories\System Tools\System Restore.

Also, it might have been some other malware, try Ad Aware:
www.lavasoftusa.com

 

[Papa]

Make sure your AV and antispyware software are both up to date.

 

[Steve Nielsen]

Sounds like Bonzai Buddy. Nasty spyware monkey that causes system
instability and helps you get even more spyware that causes even more
system instability (and probably why NAV won't run). AdAware and Spybot
Search & Destroy should remove him and his co-horts but you may have to
run them in Safe Mode to do it due to the instabilty the spyware causes
when in normal mode and they're all running amok.

You wouldn't have gotten it from a disk - it gets installed off the web.

Steve