McAfee Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus Administrator's Manual

Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus
Administrator’s Guide
Version 8.5
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2000 Network Associates, Inc. and its Affiliated Companies. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form or by any means without the written pe rmission of Network A ssociates, Inc.
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* ActiveHelp, Bomb Shelter, Building a World of Trust, CipherLink, Clean-Up, Cloaking, CNX, Compass 7, CyberCop, CyberMedia, Data Security Letter, Discover, Distributed Sniffer System, Dr Solomon’s, Enterprise Secure Cast, First Aid, ForceField, Gauntlet, GMT, GroupShield, HelpDesk, Hunter, ISDN Tel/Scope , LM 1, LANGur u, Leading H elp Desk Technol ogy, Magic Sol utions, Mag icSpy, MagicTree, Magic University, MagicWin, MagicWord, McAfee, McAfee Associates, MoneyMagic, More Power To You, Multimed ia Cloaking, NetCrypto , NetOctopus, NetRoom, Net Scan, Net Shield, NetShiel d, NetStalker, Net Tools, Network Associates, Network General, Network Uptime!, NetXRay, Nuts & Bolts, PC Medic, PCNotary, PGP, PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), PocketScope, Pop-Up, PowerTelnet, Pretty Good Privacy, PrimeSupport, RecoverKey, Recover Key-International, ReportMagic, RingFence, Ro uter PM, Safe & Sound, SalesMagic, SecureCast, Service Level Manager, ServiceMagic, Site Meter, Sniffer, SniffMaster, SniffNet, Stalker, Statistical Information Retrieval (SIR), SupportMagic, Switch PM, TeleSniffer, TIS, TMach, TMeg, Total N etwork Security, Total Network Visibility, Tota l Service Desk, Total Virus Defense, T-POD, Tru sted Mac h, Truste d Mail, Unin stall er, Vi rex, Vi rex-PC, V irus Fo rum, ViruScan, VirusScan, VShield, WebScan, WebShield, W ebSniffer , WebStalker WebWall , and ZAC 2000
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Issued May 2000/ Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus v8.5
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Administrator’s Guide iii
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iv Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus
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Administrator’s Guide v
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vi Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus
Table of Contents
Preface.....................................................xi
Anti-virusprotectionasinformationsecurity .........................xi
Informationsecurityasabusinessnecessity ........................xiv
ActiveVirusDefensesecurityperimeters ............................xv
Dr Solomons anti-virus research . . . . . .............................xvii
HowtocontactNetworkAssociates...............................xviii
Customerservice ..........................................xviii
Technical support ..........................................xix
Downloadsupport ...........................................xx
NetworkAssociatestraining...................................xx
Commentsandfeedback......................................xx
Reportingnewitemsforanti-virusdatafileupdates ...............xx
Internationalcontactinformation ..............................xxii
Chapter 1. About Dr SolomonsAnti-Virus .......................25
Introducing Dr S olomonsAnti-Virus ................................25
How does Dr SolomonsAnti-Viruswork?............................27
What comes with Dr SolomonsAnti-Virus? ..........................29
Whatsnewinthisrelease?........................................33
Chapter 2. Installing Dr SolomonsAnti-Virus ....................37
Beforeyoubegin.................................................37
Systemrequirements.........................................37
Installing Dr SolomonsAnti-Virussoftwareonalocalcomputer.........38
Installationsteps ............................................38
Using the Emergency Disk Creation utility . . . . . . . . . ..............53
Determiningwhenyoumustrestartyourcomputer................58
Testingyourinstallation ..........................................59
Modifying or removing your local Dr Solomons Anti-Virus installation .
61
Installing Dr Solomons Anti-Virus software on other computers . . . . . . . . .63
UsingActiveDirectoryandGroupPolicies.......................63
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Table of Contents
Installing DrSolomons Anti-Virussoftwareusing command-lineoptions
64
UsingManagementEditionsoftware ............................72
Using ePolicy Orchestrator to deploy Dr SolomonsAnti-Virussoftware
73
Installing via System Management Server . . . . . . . . . . ..............74
Installing via Tivoli IT Director . . . ..............................74
Installing via ZENworks . . . . . . . . . ..............................75
Exporting Dr SolomonsAnti-Viruscustomsettings ...............75
Chapter 3. Removing Infections
FromYourSystem ....................................79
Ifyoususpectyouhaveavirus... ...................................79
Decidingwhentoscanforviruses ..................................82
Recognizing when you donthaveavirus ............................83
Understandingfalsedetections ................................84
Responding to viruses or malicious software . . . . . . . . . . . ..............85
Submittingavirussample .........................................97
Using the SendVirus utility to submit a file sample . . ..............97
Capturing boot sector, file-infecting, and macro viruses . . . . . . . . . . .100
Chapter 4. Using Dr SolomonsAnti-Virus ......................105
UsingtheWinGuardscanner......................................105
Using the Dr SolomonsAnti-Virusapplication.......................105
Schedulingscantasks ...........................................106
Usingspecializedscanningtools ..................................106
Chapter5. SendingAlertMessages............................107
Using the Alert Manager Client Configuration utility . . . . . .............107
Dr SolomonsAnti-VirusasanAlertManagerClient ..................108
ConfiguringtheAlertManagerClientutility..........................108
Chapter 6. Updating and Upgrading Dr SolomonsAnti-Virus ......113
Developinganupdatingstrategy ..................................113
Update and upgrade methods . . . . . . . . .............................114
Understanding the AutoUpdate utility . .............................116
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ConfiguringtheAutoUpdateUtility.................................118
UnderstandingtheAutoUpgradeutility .............................127
Configuring the AutoUpgrade utility . . . .............................128
Using the AutoUpgrade and SuperDAT utilities together . . . . . . . . . .137
DeployinganEXTRA.DATfile.................................139
Appendix A. Using Dr Solomons Anti-Virus Administrative Utilities 141
Understanding the Dr SolomonsAnti-Viruscontrolpanel .............141
Opening the Dr SolomonsAnti-Viruscontrolpanel...................141
Choosing Dr SolomonsAnti-Viruscontrolpaneloptions ..............142
AppendixB. InstalledFiles ...................................147
Whatsinthisappendix? .........................................147
WinGuardscanner ..........................................147
Dependent and related files for the Dr Solomons Anti-Virus application
153
AlertManager ..............................................156
Dr SolomonsAnti-Viruscontrolpanelfiles .....................157
ScreenScan................................................158
Dr SolomonsAnti-VirusEmergencyDiskfiles...................160
Dependent and re lated files for the E-Mail Scan extension . . . . . . . . .162
Appendix C. Using Dr Solomons Anti-Virus Command-line Options 167
Adding advanced Dr SolomonsAnti-Virusengineoptions.............167
Running the Dr Solomons Anti-Virus Command Line program . . . . . . . . .167
Running the on-demand scanner with c ommand-line arguments . . . . . . . .177
Appendix D. Using the SecureCast Service to Get New Data Files . .185
Introducing the SecureCast service . . . .............................185
Why should I update my data files? . . . .............................186
WhichdatafilesdoestheSecureCastservicedeliver?............186
Installing the BackWeb client and SecureCast service . . . . .............187
Systemrequirements........................................187
Troubleshooting the Enterprise SecureCast service . .............197
UnsubscribingfromtheSecureCastservice.....................197
Supportresources ..............................................197
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Table of Contents
SecureCastservice .........................................197
BackWebclient.............................................198
Appendix E. Network Associates
Support Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .199
Adding value to your Dr Solomonsproduct .........................199
PrimeSupport options for corporate customers . . . . . .............199
Ordering a corporate PrimeSupport plan . . . . . . . . . . .............202
PrimeSupport options for home users . .............................204
How to reach international home user support . . . . . . .............206
Ordering a PrimeSupport pla n for home users . . . . . . .............206
NetworkAssociatesconsultingandtraining.........................207
ProfessionalServices .......................................207
TotalEducationServices.....................................208
Appendix F. Understanding iDAT Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .209
Understandingincremental.DATfiles ..............................209
How does iDAT updating work? . . . . . . .............................210
What does Dr Solomonsposteachweek?......................211
Bestpractices ..................................................212
Frequentlyaskedquestions ......................................213
Index......................................................217
x Dr SolomonsAnti-Virus
Preface
Anti-virus protection as information security
“Theworld changed[on March26, 1999]—doesanyonedoubtthat?Theworld
is different. Melissa proved that ... and we are very fortunate ... the world could have gone very close to meltdown.”
Padgett Peterson, Chief Info Security Architect, Lockheed Martin Corporation,
on the 1999 “Melissa” virus epidemic
Bytheendofthe1990s,manyinformationtechnologyprofessionalshad begun to recognize that they could not easily separate how they needed to respond to new virus threats from how they already dealt with deliberate network security breaches. Dorothy Denning, co-editor of the 1998 computer security handbook Internet Besieged: Countering Cyberspace Scofflaws, explicitly grouped anti-virus security measures in with other network security measures, classifying them as a defense against malicious “injected code.”
Denning justified her inclusive grouping on based on her definition of information security as “the effective use of safeguards to protect the confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, availability, and non-repudiation of information andinformation processing systems.” Virus payloads had always threatened or damaged data integrity, but by the time she wrote her survey article, newer viruses had already begun to mount sophisticated attacks that struck at the remaining underpinnings of information security. Denning’s classification recognized that newer viruses no longer merely annoyed system administrators or posed a relatively low-grade threat; they had in fact graduated to become a serious hazard.
Though not targeted with as much precision as an unauthorized network intrusion, virus attacks had begun to take on the color of deliberate information warfare. Consider these examples, many of which introduced quickly-copied innovations to the virus writer’s repertoire:
• W32/CIH.Spacefiller destroyed the flash BIOS in workstations it infected,
effectively preventing them from booting. It also overwrote parts of the infected hard disk with garbage data.
• XM/Compat.ArewrotethedatainsideMicrosoftExcelspreadsheetfiles.It
used advanced polymorphic concealment techniques, which meant that with each infection it changed the signature bytes that indicated its presence and allowed anti-virus scanners to find it.
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Preface
• W32/Ska, though technically a worm, replaced the infected computer’s
WinSock file so that it could attach itself to outgoing Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) messages and postings to USENET news groups. This strategy made it commonplace in many areas.
• Remote Explorer stole the security privileges of a Windows NT domain
administrator and used them to install itself as a Windows NT Service. It also deposited copies of itself in the Windows NT driver directory and carried with it a supporting Dynamic Link Library (.DLL) file that allowed it torandomly encrypt data files.Because it appearedalmost exclusively at one corporate site, security experts speculated that it was a deliberate, targeted attack on the unfortunate company’s network integrity.
• Back Orifice, the product ofa group calling itself theCult of the Dead Cow,
purported to give the owner of the client portion of the Back Orifice application complete remote access to any Windows 95 or Windows 98 workstation thatruns theconcealed companion server. That access—from anywhereon the Internet—allowed the client to capture keystrokes; open, copy, delete, or run files; transmit screen captures; and restart, crash, or shut down the infected computer. To add insult to injury, early Back Orifice releases on CD-ROM carried a W32/CIH.Spacefiller infection.
Throughout much of 1999, virus and worm attacks suddenly stepped up in intensity and in the public eye. Part of the reason for this, of course, is that many of the more notorious viruses and worms took full advantage of the Internet, beginning a long-predicted assault by flooding e-mail transmissions, websites, newsgroups and other available channels at an almost exponential rate of growth. They now bullied their way into network environments, spreading quickly and leaving a costly trail of havoc behind them.
W97M/Melissa, the “Melissa” virus, jolted most corporate information technology departments out of whatever remaining complacency they had held onto in the face of the newer virus strains. Melissa brought corporate e-mail servers down across the United States and elsewhere when it struck in March 1999. Melissa instructed e-mail client programs to send out infected e-mail messages to the first 50 entries in each target computer’s address book. This transformed a simple macro virus infection with no real payload into an effective denial-of-service attack on mail servers.
Melissa’s other principle innovation was its direct attempt to playon end-user psychology: itforged an e-mail message from asender therecipient knew,and sent it with a subject line that urged that recipient to open both the message and the attached file. In this way, Melissa almost made the need for viral code to spreaditself obsolete—end usersthemselves cooperated in its propagation, and their own computers blindly participated.
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Preface
A rash of Melissa variants and copycats appeared soon after. Some, such as W97M/Prilissa, included destructive payloads. Later the same year, a number of new viruses and worms either demonstrated novel or unexpected ways to get into networks and compromise information security, or actually perpetuated attacks. Examples included:
• W32/ExploreZip.worm and its variants, which used some of Melissa’s
techniques tospread, initially through e-mail. Afterit successfully infected a host machine, ExploreZip searched for unsecured network shares and quietly copieditself throughout a network. Itcarried a destructive payload that erased variousWindows system filesand MicrosoftOfficedocuments, replacing them with an unrecoverable zero-byte-length files.
• W32/Pretty.worm, which did Melissa one better by sending itself to every
entry in the infected computer’s MAPI address book. It also connected to an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) server, joined a particular IRC channel, then opened a path to receive commands via the IRC connection. This potentially allowed those on the channel to siphon information from the infectedcomputer,includingthecomputername and owner’s name, his or her dial-up networking user name and password, and the path to the system root directory.
• W32/FunLove.4099, which infected ActiveX .OCX files, among others.
This meantthat itcould lurkon web pageswith ActiveXcontent, andinfect systems with low or nonexistent browser security settings as they downloaded pages to their hard disks. If a Windows NT computer user had logged into a system with administrative rights, the infecting virus would patch two critical system files that gave all users on the network —including the virus—administrative rights to all files on the target computer. It spread further within the network by attaching itself to files with the extensions .SCR, .OCX, and .EXE.
• VBS/Bubbleboy, a proof-of-concept demonstration that showed that a
virus could infect target computers directly from e-mail messages themselves, without needing to propagate through message attachments. It effectively circumvented desktop anti-virus protection altogether, at least initially. Its combination of HTML and VBScript exploited existing vulnerabilities in Internet-enabledmail systems;itsauthor playedupon the same end-user psychology that made Melissa successful.
The other remarkable development in the year was the degree to which virus writers copied, fused, and extended each others’ techniques. This cross­pollination had always occurred previously, but the speed at which it took placeandtheincreasingsophisticationof the tools and techniquesthatbecame available during this period prepared very fertile ground for a nervously awaited bumper crop of intricate viruses.
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Preface
Information security as a business necessity
Coincidentally or not, these darkly inventive new virus attacks and speedy propagation methods appeared as more businesses made the transition to Internet-based information systems and electronic commerce operations. The convenience and efficiency that the Internet brought to business saved money and increased profits. This probably also made these same businesses attractive targets for pranksters, the hacker underground, and those intent on striking at their favored targets.
Previously, the chief costs from a virus attackwere the time and money it took to combat an infection and restore computer systems to working order. To those costs the new types of virus attacks now added the costs of lost productivity, network and server downtime, service denials for e-mail and other critical business tools, exposure—and perhaps widespread distribution —of confidential information, and other ills.
Ultimately, the qualifying differences between a hacker-directed security breach in a network and a security breach that results from a virus attack might become merely ones of intent and method, not results. Already new attacks have shaken the foundations of Net-enabled businesses, many of which require 24-hour availability for networks and e-mail, high data integrity, confidential customer lists, secure credit card data and purchase verification, reliable communications, and hundreds of other computer-aided transactional details. The costs fromthese virus attacks inthe digital economy now cut directly into the bottom line.
Because they do, protecting that bottom line means implementing a total solution for information and network security—one that includes comprehensive anti-virus protection. It’s not enough to rely only on desktop-basedanti-virusprotection,oronhaphazardoradhocsecurity measures. The best defense requires sealing all potential points by which viruses canenter orattack your network, from the firewall andgateway down to the individual workstation, and keeping the anti-virus sentries at those points updated and current.
Part of the solution is deploying the Dr Solomon’s Active Virus Defense* software suite, which provides a comprehensive, multi-platform series of defensive perimeters for your network. You can also build on that security with the Dr Solomon’s Active Security suite, which allows you to monitor your network against intrusions, watch actual network packet traffic, and encrypt e-mail and network transmissions. But even with anti-virus and security software installed, new and previously unidentified viruses will inevitably find their wayinto your network. That’s wherethe other part of the equation comes in: a thorough, easy-to-follow anti-virus security policy and set of practices for your enterprise—in the last analysis, only that can help to stop a virus attack before it becomes a virus epidemic.
xiv Dr SolomonsAnti-Virus
Active Virus Defense security perimeters
The Dr Solomon’s Active Virus Defense product suite exists for one simple reason: there is no such thing as too much anti-virus protection for the modern, automated enterprise. Although at first glance it might seem needlessly redundant to protect all of your desktop computers, file and network servers, gateways,e-mail servers andfirewalls, eachofthese network nodesservesa differentfunctionin your network, andhasdifferentduties.An anti-virus scanner designed to keep a production workstation virus-free, for example, can’t intercept viruses that flood e-mail servers and effectively deny their services. Nor would you want to make a file server responsible for continuously scanningits client workstations—the costin network bandwidth would be too high.
More to the point, each node’s specialized functions mean that viruses infect them in different ways that, in turn, call for optimized anti-virus solutions. Viruses and other malicious code can enter your network from a variety of sources—floppy disks and CD-ROMs, e-mail attachments, downloaded files, and Internet sites, for example. These unpredictable points ofentry mean that infecting agents can slip through the chinks in incomplete anti-virus armor.
Preface
Desktop workstations, for example, can spread viruses by any of a variety of means—via floppy disks, by downloading them from the Internet, by mapping server shares or other workstations’ hard disks. E-mail servers, by contrast, rarely use floppy disks and tend not to use mapped drives—the Melissa virus showed,however, thattheyare quitevulnerable to e-mail–borne infections, even if they don’t execute the virus code themselves.
At the desktop: Dr SolomonsAnti-Virus
The Dr Solomon’s Active Virus Defense product suite matches each point of vulnerability with a specialized, and optimized, anti-virus application. At the desktop level, the cornerstone of the suite is the Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus anti-virus product. Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus protects some of your most vulnerable virus entrypoints withan interlocking set ofscanners, utilities,and support files that allow it to cover:
• Localharddisks,floppydisks,CD-ROMs,andotherremovablemedia.The
WinGuard scanner resides in memory, waiting for local file access of any sort. As soon as one of your network users opens, runs, copies, saves, renames, orsets attributes for anyfile on their system—even from mapped network drives—the WinGuard scanner examines it for infections.
You can supplement this continuous protection with scan operations you configure and schedule for your own needs. Comprehensive security options let you protect individual options with a password, or run the entire application in secure mode to lock out all unauthorized access.
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• System memory, bootsectors, and master boot records. You can configure
regularly scheduled scan operations that examine these favorite virus hideouts, or set up periodic operations whenever a threat seems likely.
• Microsoft Exchange mailboxes. Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus includes a
specialized E-Mail Scan extension that assumes your network u ser’s Microsoft Exchange or Outlook identity to scan his or her mailbox directly—before viruses get downloaded to the local workstation. This can prevent some Melissa-style infections and avoid infections from the next generation of VBS/Bubbleboy descendants.
• Internet mail and file downloads. The WinGuard scanner includes two
modules that specialize in intercepting SMTP and POP-3 e-mail messages, and that can examine files your network users download from Internet sites. The E-Mail Scan and Download Scan modules work together to scan the stream of file traffic that most workstations generate and receive daily.
• Hostile code. The Olympus scan engine at the heart of Dr Solomon’s
Anti-Virus routinely looks for suspicious script code, macro code, known Trojan horse programs—even virus jokes or hoaxes. With the help of the WinGuard Internet Filter module, it also blocks hostile ActiveX and Java objects, many of which can lurk unnoticed on websites, waiting to deploy sophisticated virus-like payloads. The Internet Filter module can even block entire websites, preventing network users from visiting sites that pose a threat to network integrity.
Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus ties these powerful scanning capabilities together with a powerful set of alerting, updating, and management tools. These include:
• Alert Manager client configuration. Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus includes a
client configuration utility you can use to have it pass alert messages directly to Alert Manager servers on your network, to a Centralized Alerting share, or to a Desktop Management Interface administrative application. Otheralert methodsinclude localcustom messagesand beeps, detection alerts and response options, and e-mail alert messages.
• Next-generation AutoUpdateandAutoUpgrade utilities.AutoUpdatev4.5
features complete and transparent support for new incremental .DAT file updates, which save you time and network bandwidth by adding only virus definitions youdon’t alreadyhave installedon yoursystem. The new AutoUpgrade version includes support for v1.2 of the Dr Solomon’s SuperDAT utility, which you can use to update the Olympus scan engine and its support files.
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• Integration withDrSolomon’s ePolicyOrchestrator managementsoftware.
Centralized anti-virus management takes a quantum leap forward with this highly scalable management tool. Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus ships with a plug-in library file that works with the ePolicy Orchestrator server to enforce enterprise-wide network security policies.
You can use ePolicy Orchestrator to configure, update, distribute and manage DrSolomon’s Anti-Virus installations at the group, workstation or user level. Schedule and run scan tasks, change configurations, update .DAT and engine files—all from a central console.
Taken together, theActive Virus Defensesuite formsatight seriesofanti-virus security perimeters around your network that protect you against both external and internal sources of infection. Those perimeters, correctly configured and implemented in conjunction with a clear enterprise-wide anti-virus security policy, do indeed offer useful redundancy, but their chief benefit lies in their ability to stop viruses as they enter your network, without your having to await a tardy or accidental discovery. Early detection contains infections, saves on the costs of virus eradication, and in many cases can prevent a destructive virus payload from triggering.
Dr Solomons anti-virus research
Even the best anti-virus software is only as good as its latest update. Because as many as 200 to 300 viruses and variants appear each month, the .DAT files that enable Dr Solomon’s software to detect and remove viruses can get quickly outdated. If you have not updated the files that originally came with your software, you could risk infection from newly emerging viruses. Dr Solomon’s has, however, assembledthe world’slargest andmost experienced anti-virus research staff in its Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team (AVERT)*. This premier anti-virus research organization has a worldwide reach and a “follow the sun”coverage policy, that ensures that youget thefiles you need to combat new viruses as soon as—and often before—you need them. You can take advantage of many of the direct products of this research by visiting the AVERT research site on the Network Associates website:
http://www.nai.com/asp_set/anti_virus/introduction/default.asp
ContactyourDrSolomon’srepresentative,orvisittheDrSolomon’swebsite, to find out how to enlist the power of the Active Virus Defense security solution on your side:
http://www.mcafeeb2b.com/
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How to contact Network Associates
Customer service
On December 1, 1997, McAfee Associates merged with Network General Corporation, Pretty Good Privacy, Inc., and Helix Software, Inc. to form Network Associates, Inc. The combined Company subsequently acquired Dr Solomon's Software, Trusted Information Systems, Magic Solutions, and CyberMedia, Inc.
A January 2000 company reorganization formed four independent business units, each concerned with a particular product line. These are:
Magic Solutions.This divisionsupplies the TotalService desk product line
and related products
McAfee and Dr Solomon’s Software. These divisions provide the Active
Virus Defense product suite and related anti-virus software solutions to corporate and retail customers.
PGP Security. This division provides award-winning encryption and
security solutions, includingthe PGP data security and encryption product line, the Gauntlet firewall product line, the WebShield E-ppliance hardware line, and the CyberCop Scanner and Monitor product series.
Sniffer Technologies. This division supplies the industry-leading Sniffer
network monitoring, reporting, and analysis utility and related software.
Network Associates continues to market and support the product lines from each of the new independent business units. You may direct all questions, comments, or requests concerning the software you purchased, your registration status, or similar issues to the Network Associates Customer Servicedepartmentatthefollowingaddress:
Network Associates Customer Service 4099 McEwan, Suite 500 Dallas, Texas 75244 U.S.A.
The department's hours of operation are 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. Central Time, Monday through Friday
Other contact information for corporate-licensed customers: Phone: (972) 308-9960 Fax: (972) 619-7485 (24-hour, Group III fax) E-Mail: services_corporate_division@nai.com Web: http://www.nai.com
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Other contact information for retail-licensed customers: Phone: (972) 308-9960 Fax: (972) 619-7485 (24-hour, Group III fax) E-Mail: cust_care@nai.com Web: http://www.mcafee.com/
Technical support
Dr Solomon’s and Network Associates are famous for their dedication to customer satisfaction. Thecompanies have continued this tradition by making their siteson the World Wide Web valuableresources for answersto technical support issues. Dr Solomon’s encourages you to make this your first stop for answers to frequently asked questions, for updates to Dr Solomon’s and Network Associates software, and for access to news and virus information
World Wide Web http://www.nai.com/asp_set/services/technical_support
Preface
.
/tech_intro.asp
Ifyoudonotfindwhatyouneedordonothavewebaccess,tryoneofour automated services.
Internet techsupport@mcafee.com CompuServe GO NAI America Online keyword MCAFEE
If the automated services do not have the answers you need, contact Network Associates at one of the following numbers Monday through Friday between
A.M.and8:00P.M. Central time to find out about Network Associates
8:00 technical support plans.
For corporate-licensed customers:
Phone (972) 308-9960 Fax (972) 619-7845
For retail-licensed customers:
Phone (972) 855-7044 Fax (972) 619-7845
This guide includes a summary of the PrimeSupport plans available to Dr Solomon’s customers. Tolearn more about plan features and otherdetails, see
Appendix E, “Network Associates Support Services.”
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To provide the answers you need quickly and efficiently, the Network Associates technical support staff needs some information about your computer and your software. Please include this information in your correspondence:
• Product name and version number
• Computer brand and model
• Any additional hardware or peripherals con nected to your computer
• Operating system type and version numbers
• Network type and version, if applicable
• Contents of your AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, and system LOGIN
script
• Specific steps to reproduce the problem
Download support
Toget help withnavigating ordownloading files from theNetwork Associates or Dr Solomon’s websites or FTP sites, call:
Corporate customers (801) 492-2650 Retail customers (801) 492-2600
Network Associates training
For information about scheduling on-site training for any Dr Solomon’s or Network Associates product, call Network Associates Customer Service at: (972) 308-9960.
Comments and feedback
Dr Solomon’s Software appreciates your comments and reserves the right to use any information you supply in any way it believes appropriate without incurring any obligation whatsoever.
Reporting new items for anti-virus data file updates
DrSolomon’santi-virussoftwareoffersyouthebestavailabledetectionand removal capabilities, including advanced heuristic scanning that can detect new andunnamed viruses as they em erge. Occasionally, however,an entirely new type of virus that is not a variation on an older type can appear on your system and escape detection.
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Because Dr Solomon’s researchers are committed to providing you with effective and up-to-date tools you can use to protect your system, please tell them about any new Java classes, ActiveX controls, dangerous websites, or viruses that your software does not now detect. Note that Dr Solomon’s Software reserves the right to use any information you supply as it d eems appropriate, without incurring any obligations whatsoever. Send your questions or virus samples to:
virus_research@nai.com Use this address to send questions or
virus samples to our North America and South America offices
vsample@nai.com Use this address to send questions or
virus samples gathered with Dr Solomons Anti-Virus Toolkit* software to our offices in the United Kingdom
To report items to the Dr Solomon’s European researchoffice, usethese e-ma il addresses:
virus_research_europe@nai.com Use this address to send questions or
virus samples to our offices in Western Europe
virus_research_de@nai.com Use this address to send questions or
virus samples gathered with Dr Solomons Anti-Virus Toolkit software to our offices in Germany
To report items to the Dr Solomon’s Asia-Pacific research office, or the office in Japan, use one of these e-mail addresses:
virus_research_japan@nai.com Use this address to send questions or
virus samples to our offices in Japan and East Asia
virus_research_apac@nai.com Use this address to send questions or
virus samples toour officesin Australia and South East Asia
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International contact information
To contact Network Associates outside the United States, use the addresses, phone numbers and fax numbers below.
Network Associates Australia
Level 1, 500 Pacific Highway St. Leonards, NSW Sydney, Australia 2065 Phone: 61-2-8425-4200 Fax: 61-2-9439-5166
Network Associates Belgique
BDC Heyzel Esplanade, boîte 43 1020 Bruxelles Belgique
Phone: 0032-2 478.10.29 Fax: 0032-2 478.66.21
Network Associates Canada
Network Associates Austria
Pulvermuehlstrasse 17 Linz, Austria Postal Code A-4040 Phone: 43-732-757-244 Fax: 43-732-757-244-20
Network Associates do Brasil
Rua Geraldo Flausino Gomez 78 Cj. - 51 Brooklin Novo - São Paulo SP - 04575-060 - Brasil
Phone: (55 11) 5505 1009 Fax: (55 11) 5505 1006
Network Associates Peoples Republic of China
139 Main Street, Suite 201 Unionville, Ontario Canada L3R 2G6 Phone: (905) 479-4189 Fax: (905) 479-4540
Network Associates Denmark
Lautruphoej 1-3 2750 Ballerup Danmark Phone: 45 70 277 277 Fax: 45 44 209 910
New CenturyOffice Tower,Room 1557 No. 6 Southern Road Capitol Gym Beijing Peoples Republicof China 100044 Phone: 8610-6849-2650 Fax: 8610-6849-2069
NA Network Associates Oy
Mikonkatu 9, 5. krs. 00100 Helsinki
Finland Phone: 358 9 5270 70 Fax: 358 9 5270 7100
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Network Associates France S.A.
50 Rue de Londres 75008 Paris France Phone: 33 1 44 908 737 Fax: 33145227554
Network Associates Hong Kong
19th Floor, Matheson Centre 3 Matheson Way Causeway Bay Hong Kong 63225 Phone: 852-2832-9525 Fax: 852-2832-9530
Network Associates Deutschland GmbH
Ohmstraße1 D-85716 Unterschleißheim Deutschland Phone: 49 (0)89/3707-0 Fax: 49 (0)89/3707-1199
Network Associates Srl
Centro Direzionale Summit Palazzo D/1 Via Brescia, 28 20063 - Cernusco s ul Naviglio (MI) Italy Phone: 39 02 92 65 01 Fax: 39 02 92 14 16 44
Network Associates Japan, Inc.
Toranomon 33 Mori Bldg. 3-8-21 Toranomon Minato-Ku Tokyo 105-0001 Japan Phone: 81 3 5408 0700 Fax: 81 3 5408 0780
Network Associates de Mexico
Andres Bello No. 10, 4 Piso 4th Floor Col. Polanco Mexico City, Mexico D.F. 11560 Phone: (525) 282-9180 Fax: (525) 282-9183
Network Associates Latin America
1200S.PineIslandRoad,Suite375 Plantation, Florida 33324 United States Phone: (954) 452-1731 Fax: (954) 236-8031
Network Associates International B.V.
Gatwickstraat 25 1043 GL Amsterdam The Netherlands Phone: 31 20 586 6100 Fax: 31 20 586 6101
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Network Associates Portugal
Av. da Liberdade, 114 1269-046 Lisboa Portugal Phone: 351 1 340 4543 Fax: 351 1 340 4575
Network Associates South East Asia
78 Shenton Way #29-02 Singapore 079120 Phone: 65-222-7555 Fax: 65-220-7255
Net Tools Network Associates South Africa
Bardev House, St. Andrews Meadowbrook Lane Epson Downs, P.O. Box 7062 Bryanston, Johannesburg South Africa 2021 Phone: 27 11 706-1629 Fax: 27 11 706-1569
Network Associates Spain
a
Orense 4, 4
Planta. Edificio Trieste 28020 Madrid, Spain Phone: 34 9141 88 500 Fax: 34 9155 61 404
Network Associates Sweden
Datavägen 3A Box 596 S-17526Järfälla Sweden Phone: 46 (0) 8 580 88 400 Fax: 46 (0) 8 580 88 405
Network Associates Taiwan
Suite6,11F,No.188,Sec.5 NanKingE.Rd. Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China Phone: 886-2-27-474-8800 Fax: 886-2-27-635-5864
Network Associates AG
Baeulerwisenstrasse 3 8152 Glattbrugg Switzerland Phone: 0041 1 808 99 66 Fax: 0041 1 808 99 77
Network Associates International Ltd.
227 Bath Road Slough, Berkshire SL1 5PP United Kingdom Phone: 44 (0)1753 217 500 Fax: 44 (0)1753 217 520
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1About Dr SolomonsAnti-Virus
Introducing Dr SolomonsAnti-Virus
Eighty percent of the Fortune 100—and more than 50 mil lion users worldwide—choose DrSolomon’s Anti-Virus to protect their computers from the staggering range of viruses and other malicious agents that has emerged in the last decade to invade corporate networks and cause havoc for business users. They do so because Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus offers the most comprehensive desktop anti-virus security solution available, with features that spot viruses, block hostile ActiveX and Java objects, identify dangerous websites, stop infectiouse-mail messages—andeven rootout “zombie” agents that assist in large-scale denial-of-service attacks from across the Internet. They do so also because they recognize how much value Dr Solomon’s anti-virus research and development brings to their fight to maintain network integrity and service levels, ensure data security, and reduce ownership costs.
With more than 50,000 viruses and malicious agents now in circulation, the stakes in this battle have risen considerably. Viruses and worms now have capabilities that can cost an enterprise real money, not just in terms of lost productivity and cleanup costs, but in direct bottom-line reductions in revenue, as more businesses move into e-commerce and online sales, and as virus attacks proliferate.
1
Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virusfirsthoned its technologicaledge as oneof a handful of pioneering utilities developed to combat the earliest virus epidemics of the personal computer age.It has developed considerably inthe intervening years to keep pace with each new subterfuge that virus writers have unleashed. As one of the first Internet-aware anti-virus applications, it maintains its value today as an indispensable business utility for the new electronic economy. Now, with this release, Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus adds a whole new level of manageability and integration with other Dr Solomon’s anti-virus tools.
Architectural improvements mean that each Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus component meshes closely with the others, sharing data and resources for better application response and fewer demands on your system. Full support for Network Associates ePolicy Orchestrator management software means that network administrators can handle the details of component and task configuration, leaving you free to concentrate on your own work. A new incremental updating technology, meanwhile, means speedier and less bandwidth-intensive virus definition and scan engine downloads—now the protection you need to deal with the blindingly quick distribution rates of new-generation viruses canarrive faster thanever before. Tolearn more about these features, see “What’s new in this release?” on page 33.
Administrators Guide 25
About Dr SolomonsAnti-Virus
The new release also adds multiplatform support for Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT Workstation v 4.0, and Windows 2000 Professional, all in a single package with a single installer, but optimized to take advantage of the benefits each platform offers. Windows NT Workstation v4.0 and Windows 2000 Professional users, for example, can run Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus with differing security levels that provide a range of enforcement options for system administrators. That way, corporate anti-virus policy implementation can vary from the relatively casual—where an administrator might lock down a few critical settings,for example—to the very strict, with predefinedsettings that users cannot change or disable at all.
At thesame time, as the cornerstone productin theDr Solomon’s ActiveVirus Defense and Total Virus Defense security suites, Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus retains the same core features that have made it the utility of choice for the corporate desktop. These include a virus detection rate second to none, powerful heuristic capabilities, Trojan horse program detection and removal, rapid- response updating with weekly virus definition (.DAT) file releases, daily beta .DAT releases, and EXTRA.DAT file support in crisis or outbreak situations. Because more than 300 new viruses or malicious software agents appear each month Dr Solomon’s backs its software with a worldwide reach and 24-hour “follow the sun” coverage from its Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team (AVERT).
Evenwiththeriseofvirusesandwormsthatusee-mailtospread,thatflood e-mail servers, or that infect groupware products and file servers directly, the individual desktop remains the single largest source of infections, and isoften the most vulnerable point of entry. Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus acts as a tireless desktop sentry, guarding your system against more venerable virus threats and against the latest threats that lurk on websites, often without the site owner’s knowledge, or spread via e-mail, whether solicited or not.
In this environment, taking precautions to protect yourself from malicious software is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. Consider the extent to which you rely on the data on your computer and the time, trouble and money it would take to replace that data if it became co rrupted o r unusable because of a virus infection. Corporate anti-virus cleanup costs, by some estimates, topped $16 billion in 1999 alone. Balance the probability of infection—and your company’s share of the resulting costs—against the time and effort it takes to put a few common sense security measures in place, and you can quickly see the utility in protecting yourself.
Even if your own data is relatively unimportant to you, neglecting to guard against viruses might mean that your computer could play unwitting host to a virus that could spread to computers that your co-workers and colleagues use. Checking your hard disk periodically with Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus significantly reduces your system’s vulnerability to infection and keeps you from losing time, money and data unnecessarily.
26 Dr SolomonsAnti-Virus
About Dr SolomonsAnti-Virus
How does Dr SolomonsAnti-Viruswork?
DrSolomon’sAnti-Viruscombinestheanti-virusindustry’smostcapablescan engine with top-notch interface enhancements that give you complete access to that engine’s power. The Dr Solomon’s Anti- Virus graphical user interface unifies its specialized program components, but without sacrificing the flexibility you need to fit the software into your computing environment. The scan engine, meanwhile, combines the best features of technologies that McAfee and Dr Solomon researchers developed independently for more th an adecade.
Fast, accurate virus detection
The foundation for that combination is the unique development environment that McAfee and Dr Solomon researchers constructed for the engine. That environment includes Virtran, a specialized programming language with a structure and “vocabulary” optimized for the particular requirements that virus detecti on and removal impose.Using specific library functions from this language, for instance, virus researchers can pinpoint those sections within a file, a boot sector, or a master boot record that viruses tend to i nfect, either because they can hi de within them, or because they can hijack their execution routines. This way, the scanner avoids having to examine the entire file for virus code; it caninstead sample the file at welldefined points to lookfor virus code signatures that indicate an infection.
Thedevelopment environmentbringsas much speedto .DAT fileconstruction as i t does toscan engineroutines. The environmentprovides toolsresearchers can use to write “generic” definitions that identify entire virus families, and that can easily detect the tensor hundreds of variants that make up the bulk of new virus sightings. Continual refinements to this technique have moved most of the hand-tooled virus definitions that used to reside in .DAT file updates directly into the scan engine as bundles of generic routines. Researchers can even employ a Virtran architectural feature to plug in new engine “verbs” that, when combined with existing engine functions, can add functionality needed to deal with new infection techniques, new variants, or other problems that emerging viruses now pose.
This results in blazingly quick enhancements the engine’s detection capabilities and removes the need for continuous updates that target virus variants.
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About Dr SolomonsAnti-Virus
Encrypted polymorphic virus detection
Along with generic virus variant detection, the scan engine now incorporates a generic decryption engine, a set of routines that enables Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus to track viruses that try to conceal themselves by encrypting and mutating their code signatures. These “polymorphic” viruses are notoriously difficult to detect, since they change their code signature each time they replicate.
This meant that the simple pattern-matching method that earlier scan engine incarnations used to find many viruses simply no longer worked, since no constant sequence of bytes existed to detect. To respond to this threat, Dr Solomon’s researchers developed the PolyScan Decryption Engine, which locates and analyzes the algorithm that these types of viruses use to encrypt and decrypt themselves. It then runs this code through its paces in an emulated virtual machine in order to understand how the viruses mutate themselves. Once it does so, the engine can spot the “undisguised” nature of these viruses, and thereby detect them reliably no matter how they try to hide themselves.
Double heuristicsanalysis
As a further engine enhancement, Dr Solomon’s researchers have honed early heuristic scanning technologies—originally developed to detect the astonishing flood ofmacro virus variants that eruptedafter 1995—into aset of precision instruments. Heuristic scanning techniques rely on the engine’s experiencewith previousviruses topredictthe likelihood that asuspicious file is an as-yet unidentified or unclassified new virus.
The scan engine now incorporates ViruLogic, a heuristic technique that can observe a program’s behavior and evaluate how closely it resembles either a macro virus or a file-infecting virus. ViruLogic looks for virus-like behaviors in program functions, such as covert file modifications, background calls or invocations of e-mail clients, and other methods that viruses can use to replicatethemselves.Whenthenumberofthesetypesofbehaviors—ortheir inherent quality—reaches a predetermined threshold of tolerance, the engine fingers the program as a likely virus.
The engine also “triangulates” its evaluation bylooking for program behavior that no virus would display—prompting for some types of user input, for example—in orderto eliminate false positive detections. This double-heuristic combination of “positive” and “negative” techniques results in an unsurpassed detection rate with few, if any, costly misidentifications.
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About Dr SolomonsAnti-Virus
Wide-spectrum coverage
As malicious agents have evolved to take advantage of the instant communication and pervasive reach of the Internet, so Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus has evolved to counter the threats they present. A computer “virus” once meant a specific type of agent—one designed to replicate on its own andcause alimited type of havoc on the unlucky recipient’s computer. In recent years, however, an astounding range of malicious agents has emerged to assault personal computer usersfrom nearlyeveryconceivable angle.Many of these agents—some of the fastest-spreading worms, for instance—use updated versions of vintage techniques to infect systems, but many others make full use of the new opportunities that web-based scripting and application hosting present.
Stillothers open “backdoors”into desktopsystems or createsecurityholes in a way that closely resembles a deliberate attempt at network penetration, rather than the more random mayhem that most viruses tend to leave in their wakes.
The latest Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus releases, as a consequence, do not simply wait for viruses to appear on your system, they scan proactively at the source or work to deflect hostile agents away from your system. The WinGuard scanner that comes with Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus has three modules that concentrate on agents that arrive from the Internet, that spread via e-mail, or that lurk on Internet sites. It can look for particular Java and ActiveX objects that pose a threat, or block access to dangerous Internet sites. Meanwhile, an E-Mail Scan extension to Microsoft Exchangee-mail clients, such as Microsoft Outlook, can “x-ray” your mailbox on the server, looking for malicious agents before they arrive on your desktop.
Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus even protects itself against attempts to use its own functionality against your computer. Some virus writers embed their viruses inside documentsthat, inturn, theyembed inother filesinan attempt to evade detection. Still others take this technique to an absurd extreme, constructing highly recursive—and very large—compressed archive files in an attempt to tie up the scanner as it digs through the file looking for infections. Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virusaccurately scansthemajority of popularcompressed file and archive file formats, but it also includes logic that keeps it from getting trapped in an endless hunt for a virus chimera.
What comes with Dr Solom on’sAnti-Virus?
Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus consists of several components that combine one or more related programs, each of which play a part in defending your computer against viruses and other malicious software. The components are:
Administrators Guide 29
About Dr SolomonsAnti-Virus
The Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus application. This component gives you
unmatched control over your scanningoperations. You can configure and start a scan operation at any time—a feature known as “on-demand” scanning— specify local and network disks as scan targets, tell the application how to respond to any infections it finds, and see reports on its actions. You can start with the Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus Classic window, a basic configuration mode, then move to the Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus Advanced mode for maximum flexibility. A related Windows shell extension lets you right-click any object on your system to scan it.
The Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus Console. This component allows you to
create, configure and run Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus tasks at times you specify. A “task” can include anything from running a scan operation on a set of disks at a specific time or interval, to running an update or upgrade operation. You can also enable or disable the WinGuard scanner from the Console window.
the Console comes with a preset list oftasks that ensures a minimal level of protection for your system—you can, for example, immediately scan and clean your C: drive or all disks on your computer.
The WinGuard scanner. This component gives you continuous anti-virus
protection from viruses that arrive on floppy disks, from your network, or from various sources on the Internet. The WinGuard scanner starts when you start your computer, and stays in memory until you shut down. A flexible set of property pages lets you tell the scanner which parts of your system to examine, what to look for, which parts to leave alone, and how to respond to any infected files it finds. In addition, the scanner can alert you when it finds avirus, and can generate reportsthat summarize eachof its actions.
The WinGuard scanner comes with three other specialized modules that guard against hostile Java applets and ActiveX controls, that scan e-mail messages and attachments that you receive from the Internet via Lotus cc:Mail, Microsoft Mail or other mail clients that comply with Microsoft’s MessagingApplication Programming Interface (MAPI) standard, and that block access to dangerous Internet sites. Secure password protection for your configuration options prevents others from making unauthorized changes. The same convenient dialog box controls configuration options for all WinGuard modules.
• The E-Mail Scan extension. This component allows you to scan your
Microsoft Exchange or Outlook mailbox, or public folders to which you have access, directly on the server. This invaluable “x-ray” peek into your mailbox means that Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus can find potential infections before they make their way to your desktop, which can stop a Melissa-like virus in its tracks.
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