Decade old Zerco virus--can you recommend an anti-virus cleaner?

E

em

Version: v.X
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

I've got a g4 that has resurrected the old zerco virus, courtesy of an infected archived file that was opened (I should have left that storage disk alone). I have hundreds of word documents that it spread to; unfortunately, I no longer have the anti-virus software I used to clean it the first time.

ClamAV recognizes the virus, but it only gives me the option to quarantine the files, not clean them. Can anyone recommend a good program/course of action?

Thanks.
 
J

John McGhie

If your problem is only the Zerco virus, you can get that one out by hand,
provided that you can find all instances.

1) Quit Word...

2) Run Clam AV and allow it to quarantine everything it finds that contains
the virus. One of the files will be your Normal template. Allow that to
happen.

Now:

3) Now you can open each file in the Clam AV Quarantine store, one by one.

IMPORTANT: Use File>Open from within Word to do this. If you open any
other way, you will spread the virus.

4) When each file opens, use File>Save As and save the file as RTF. RTF
cannot contain virus code. Make sure you add the extension to the file name
:)

You will get a prompt saying something about "All macros will be lost". The
answer is "Great, that's exactly what I am trying to do". I think the
button is just labelled OK :)

5) After you have done this to all of the documents in the quarantine, you
now need to quit Word carefully.
* You may be asked if you want to "save Normal". The answer is "No" and
"Quit Anyway".
* If you are NOT asked to save Normal, assume that the new one is now
infected.

6) Delete the Normal Template before opening Word or any other documents.

7) Delete all the .doc or .dot versions of the files from the Quarantine
folder. Make SURE you get them all :) And make sure you also delete any
files that do not have any extension :) The Normal template does not have
an extension.

8) EMPTY THE TRASH. This step is critical -- until you do this, you are
still infected :)

Word will now create a new blank Normal template when it restarts, and
everything will be fine from there. Move the RTF versions of the documents
back where they're supposed to be. You can re-save them as .doc format if
you like -- .doc format takes up a lot less disk space.

ClamAV can't clean viruses because it does not know how to edit Word (or any
other kind of...) documents. What do you want for free?? :)

Hope this helps

Version: v.X
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

I've got a g4 that has resurrected the old zerco virus, courtesy of an
infected archived file that was opened (I should have left that storage disk
alone). I have hundreds of word documents that it spread to; unfortunately, I
no longer have the anti-virus software I used to clean it the first time.

ClamAV recognizes the virus, but it only gives me the option to quarantine the
files, not clean them. Can anyone recommend a good program/course of action?

Thanks.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]
 
C

Clive Huggan

Hoots mon, Mr McGhie -- your clan will be sae proud of ye!

McTavish
========
 

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