McAfee update classifies Vista component as a Trojan

Another fine mess

By John Leyden • Get more from this author

Posted in Enterprise Security, 21st October 2008 15:59 GMT

Free whitepaper – Vulnerability management buyer's checklist

McAfee has fixed an update glitch that wrongly slapped a Trojan classification on components of Microsoft Vista.

As a result of a misfiring update, published on Monday, the Windows Vista console IME executable was treated as a password-stealing Trojan. Depending on their setup, McAfee users applying would have typically found the component either quarantined or deleted.

The antivirus firm fixed the glitch with a definition update on Tuesday that recognised the difference between the Vista component and malware, as explained in a write-up by McAfee here.

False positives with virus signature updates are a perennial problem for antivirus vendors, and the latest glitch is far from the first such occurrence to befall McAfee. Only two months ago in August McAfee wrongly categorised a plug-in for Microsoft Office Live Meeting as a Trojan. ®

Free whitepaper – Avoiding 7 common mistakes of IT security compliance