Panda antivirus mistakenly flags itself as malware, bricks PCs

[Brink]

It's the one time you'll hear IT warn you not to "turn it off and on again."

An update to a number of Panda antivirus programs Wednesday mistakenly flagged core files as malware, putting them in quarantine. In doing so, the antivirus system ceased working.

First reported by The Register, machines are left unstable, or unable to access the Internet.

Panda's free antivirus, retail 2015 service, and its enterprise cloud-based antimalware service are all affected. It's not clear how many machines are affected,

The company took to Twitter to warn users: "Please, Don't reboot PCs. We'll keep you posted."

Read more: Panda antivirus mistakenly flags itself as malware, bricks PCs | ZDNet

 

[StrikeFIN]

In my case (worst type), I had to reinstall Windows 7. All other options were used, but it was no use.

Caused too much damage, hopefully I had custom image for my configuration so it didn't take long to install it.

 

[A Guy]

It would be funny if it didn't cause so much chaos...

A Guy

 

[koolkat77]

Oops. :roflmao:

 

[z3r010]

I've just figured out what caused our random traffic spike on Wednesday

 

[Alejandro85]

What's funny is that this thing can be totally prevented if the developer has installed it's own software in one single test machine and updated it to see it crash, but, you know, it's far cheaper to use users as test piggies

And people still believe in antiviruses and other fairy tales.

 

[Borg 386]

This is why it's always a good idea to have a recent system image handy.

 

[groze]

This is why it's always a good idea to have a recent system image handy.

Agreed

As I just found out, you need more then one image backup or you will have a fun way of restoring your computer.

 

[Boozad]

Image weekly. It's not a women's magazine, it's bloody good advice.

 

[Borg 386]

This is why it's always a good idea to have a recent system image handy.

Agreed

As I just found out, you need more then one image backup or you will have a fun way of restoring your computer.

I always keep the last 5 images I did in addition to the one I just made. This way if I inadvertently make a image with a virus, I have an older clean version to fall back on. And I keep them on an external drive that's not always connected to the PC.

A system image can definitely be a lifesaver when disaster strikes & with all the ransomware out there lately, it's just best not to taker a chance.

 

[A Guy]

A Guy

 

[groze]

Just for those who are curious because I deleted a backup image too soon.
My oldest backup has a clean Windows 7 with Lubuntu Linux.
My newest backup possibly had an unclean Windows 7 with a clean Xubuntu Linux

So what I did is restored windows 7 from my oldest backup using Macrium reflect.
Then using a MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition boot cd deleted the Lubuntu Linux and Linux swap partition.
Then using the possible unclean windows 7 image, I restored only the Xubuntu Linux partition using Macrium,
Then using a MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition boot cd, I resized windows partition & created a new Linux swap partition.
Now I have a Clean Windows 7 and Xubuntu system.

I hope this made sense.

 

[andrew129260]

Wow. That is completely unacceptable. Might have to re-evaluate Panda...Unfortunately, I feel it is the last of good free av's.

What's funny is that this thing can be totally prevented if the developer has installed it's own software in one single test machine and updated it to see it crash, but, you know, it's far cheaper to use users as test piggies

And people still believe in antiviruses and other fairy tales.

Agreed, and what do you mean by that?

 

[Cr00zng]

McAfee did the same 3-5 years ego that I recall from my corporate life.

Antivirus had, or is becoming like any other software. Push it out to the general public asap and let the chips fall where they may.

There are about 300 new malware every minute, entrusting antivirus only for keeping one's system secured is a futile attempt. That's not to say that one would not need AV. Yes, it still needed since there's no better solution out there, but AV needs helps. Help can be provided by keeping the system updated, additional solutions that can prevent buffer overflows and/or system changes, etc.

End user training is useless most of the times and based on how long we've been having end user training, it should've worked by now.

 

[Alejandro85]

Agreed, and what do you mean by that?

Little joke, but the thing is that antiviruses are still considered THE ultimate protection while in practice they've been proved to be increasingly inefective and more and more useless each day, yet many people still believe that an antivirus will protect they, disregarding real security methods. What's "funny" is those bricked machines were bricekd for not so good reason.

 

[andrew129260]

Ah gotcha. Yes, AV is no longer just what you need. Has not been that way for awhile now....

Unfortunately, Panda is the only one that is free that detects all my samples constantly, and is the most effective in my own tests.

Sad though that this failure happened, just like mcafee. I remember it happening to avast before as well. And malwarebytes.