[Macpartners] VirusScan processes

[Brian Bulmer]

The latest Virusscan installer from the MIT downloads page should  
address this.

If not, you can fix it manually. Just delete the file:  /Library/ 
LaunchDaemons/com.mcafee.virusscan.vshieldepointerface.plist
Reboot and it will recreate the preferences properly.

With regards to if it's needed. Well, there are no known virii to macs  
yet, however, if you receive one and do not detect and clean it,  
you'll be acting as a carrier if you send that file along to the next  
person who may be a PC user. The mac wont contract the virus, but will  
hold onto it in it's original form and stay attached to whatever file  
it was when you received it.

Brian Bulmer
DITR Information Technology Consultant
Information Services and Technology, MIT
Office: (617) 253-2163
bbulmer at mit.edu
http://web.mit.edu/ist/teams/ditr
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On Dec 10, 2008, at 2:46 PM, Felix Kreisel wrote:

> Hi,
> I have seen the following problem on one Mac G4 running 10.4 and one  
> G5 running 10.5 and both trying to run Virusscan 8.6.   The VS on G4  
> was running amok on the system, starting numerous VShieldScanner  
> processes. It brought the whole system to its knees and it was  
> impossible to do anything else. We needed to start up from a CD,  
> start the root process and uninstall VirusScan.
> On the G5 (my own), VirusScan does spin up a few VShieldScanner  
> processes, but the dual 2GHz system is able to keep running despite  
> them. These processes become fairly passive after a while.
>
> Do we need VirusScan? Do we need any anti-virus software at all on a  
> Mac? Am I seeing a bug in VirusScan? Is there a fix?
>
>
> Felix Kreisel - Systems Engineer,
> Plasma Science & Fusion Center, MIT
> 617-253-8625   fjk at mit.edu
>
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