Kaspersky Decides Windows Explorer Is A Virus

from the not-everyone-would-disagree dept

Fri, Dec 21st 2007 10:14am — Mike Masnick

You can already hear the Apple and Linux fans snickering about this one, but security software firm Kaspersky accidentally classified Windows Explorer as a virus to be quarantined earlier this week. Explorer.exe, of course, is pretty crucial for doing just about anything in Windows, so it probably didn't go over so well with the folks impacted by it. Amusingly, as the article notes, Kaspersky made fun of Microsoft earlier this year when Microsoft's own anti-virus offering quarantined or deleted Microsoft Outlook files. And, of course, last year we also had a story about how Kaspersky's software flagged Microsoft's own anti-virus software as a virus as well. In other words... these anti-virus programs still have some kinks to work out.

Filed Under: quarantine, security, viruses, windows explorer
Companies: kaspersky, microsoft

22 Comments

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Time, 21 Dec 2007 @ 10:26am

Well it is about
Hahahahahahah, I would have loved to come in and see all my workstations and servers trying to quarantine the explorer process. That would have been the best ever!
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Dec 2007 @ 10:37am

Haven't people been saying this for years?
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Eric A (profile), 21 Dec 2007 @ 10:39am

Well, duh!

EMA
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The Typo Nazi, 21 Dec 2007 @ 10:42am

Capitalize the 'S', Mike.

'so it probably....'
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 Dec 2007 @ 10:43am
  
  Re:
  or use a comma instead of a period.
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TheDock22, 21 Dec 2007 @ 10:51am

Wow
I am so glad we do not use Kaspersky's products or I would be one mad administrator.
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- JJ, 21 Dec 2007 @ 2:50pm
  
  Re: Wow
  We use Kasperky here and had no trouble. I find it works pretty well... Better than most.
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pacer, 21 Dec 2007 @ 11:50am

Well, it happened with me once. Kaspersky decided that there was another trojan trying to embed itself in explorer.exe and quarantined it. Actually, I was just installing SIM CITY.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Dec 2007 @ 1:53pm

no wonder I have never heard of Kaspersky they suck
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T Jordan, 21 Dec 2007 @ 2:01pm

windows is a virus
I totally agree. Hackers can totally take over your internet connection and make everything look like you are navigating on a REAL page. Pisses me off.
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Alfred E. Neuman, 21 Dec 2007 @ 2:01pm

If the shoe fits
wear it
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david, 22 Dec 2007 @ 5:24am

NOD32 reigns supreme!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Dec 2007 @ 8:21am

Get a Mac!
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Hi, 23 Dec 2007 @ 8:43am

Ha Ha Windows...
I woder what norton has been doing when I am away...
At least windows is still best when it comes to gaming. Mac has the better OS and computer in my opinion for work and media but they fail to get that media around my house unless I buy 10 different sets of tinny "compact" iPod speakers at like $200 a pice. And nobody seems to care about lenix anymore "It's just for serevers". Oh and WTF is NOD32.
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TechNoFear (profile), 24 Dec 2007 @ 7:09pm

Not only Kaspersky...
My home PC has a free version of AVG (so can't complain about the value...).

Last week AVG decided an exe used by MS Visual Studio 2003 (to build resource files for WIN32 apps) was a trojan.

Even the DVD (made before the trojan) was infected.

Patched very quickly though.

Just took me a while to understand why my apps no longer built.
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Kaspersky Decides Windows Explorer Is A Virus
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Darrel, 27 Dec 2008 @ 9:49am

Kaspersky
Thats really funny, i found some more stuff about it http://ddlfrog.com
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- funnylove (profile), 13 Jul 2009 @ 7:00pm
  
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Mikey, 18 Feb 2010 @ 12:30pm

If there were any single Windows file that should be on the top of the safe list, this is most certainly it. I have always been glad I went with Sophos antivirus over Kaspersky, but that was mainly due to resource issues...this reason makes me even happier about that decision.
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