Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/10/cloudmark_dodgy_update/
Outlook grim as Cloudmark update crashes email clients
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Posted in Spam, 10th August 2007 16:03 GMT
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A dodgy spam definition update from Cloudmark has crashed users' email clients.
Users of the anti-spam service were left unable to run either Outlook or Outlook Express without their email clients crashing. Cloudmark blamed the problem on a corrupted file that formed part of the update, issued on Thursday. The firm has now resolved the problem. Users need to install a new version of Cloudmark Desktop, as explained here (http://www.cloudmark.com/desktop/support).
Reg reader Ian was among those hit by the glitch. "I spent 12 hours trying to get our email back up here. The problem appeared on two machines - an exception and closing of Outlook, and the scary warning about ntdll.dll.
"To be honest Cloudmark is a fit and forget product and works really well for us but I was a tad annoyed when I had to hunt on their web site for a message putting their hands up," he added.
Ian was far from alone is suffering problems as posts (http://www.cloudmark.com/desktop/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1057) to Cloudmark's forum's demonstrate.
False positives are well known as something of an Achilles heel for signature-based malware detection. Problems crop up regularly. Cloudmark's whoopsie this week show that signature updates for spam scanners can cause similar problems, occasionally. ®