Buggy McAfee update slams Windows XP PCs

[Starbuck]

McAfee's popular antivirus software broke down on Wednesday, causing Windows XP computers to have networking problems or repeatedly reboot.

 

By midday Wednesday, reports began to indicate just how widespread and damaging the McAfee update was.

 

McAfee has posted a Web page on a separate site with detailed instructions on how to fix XP computers that have been crashing because of Wednesday's update. It recommends manually downloading and installing an "EXTRA.DAT" file, and then restore files that have been incorrectly quarantined.

 

McAfee KnowledgeBase - False positive detection of w32/wecorl.a in 5958 DAT

 

Early reports attributed the widespread problems to a routine McAfee update that caused computers with Microsoft's Service Pack 3 installed to incorrectly identify a legitimate operating system component as containing a virus.

 

The update did not seem to cripple computers running Windows Vista or Windows 7.

 

Source:

Buggy McAfee update slams Windows XP PCs | Security - CNET News