Mac virus

Posted by: Joe Petrik on 15 November 2004

Do any Mac gurus know how to remove the "W97M/Locale.gen" virus from a Mac? (Not my machine, by the way.) All searches I've done give instructions on how to remove this virus from a PC, but none describes how to remove it from a Mac. Luckily, as viruses go, the W97M/Locale.gen isn't that nasty -- it seems to be concerned with nothing other than replicating itself -- but it is a pain all the same.

Here's are the system specs --

* Mac G4 dual 1GHz
* running OSX 10.2.something
* Office X and Office 98 installed

Any help or hints on disinfection would be appreciated.

Joe
Posted on: 15 November 2004 by Joe Petrik
A bit more info.

Joe
Posted on: 17 November 2004 by Mike Hughes
Joe,

There are a few well known Mac fans on this forum. As you will be aware Macs don't get viruses as they are infinitely more user-friendly and secure (as opposed to pricey, no more user-friendly than a PC and no more secure if they ever sold in comparable quantities Big Grin Big Grin Big Grin).

You must be imagining it!!!

Mike
Posted on: 17 November 2004 by garyi
Bloody hell Joe, they arn't very forward with the info are they?

There is a free virus cheacker for OSX, presumably because of the age of the virus it must be treatable, I suppose the main concern from a Mac standpoint is infecting PCs, I don't suppose its causing much hassle on the mac.

Mike, Known viruse for Mac=6

How many are there for PC? Winker
Posted on: 17 November 2004 by garyi
And Here it is:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/24449

Freeware virus checker on open source. Scan the harddrive and it will quarenteen baddies.
Posted on: 17 November 2004 by Joe Petrik
Mike,

quote:
As you will be aware Macs don't get viruses as they are infinitely more user-friendly and secure (as opposed to pricey, no more user-friendly than a PC and no more secure if they ever sold in comparable quantities

Ironically enough -- perhaps in the Alanis sense of irony -- the W97M/Locale.gen virus the Mac caught was from a few infected Word 97 (Windows) files on some old PC-formatted Zip disks, so the little bug crossed the species barrier so to speak. True enough, the virus infected a Mac, but it evolved in the PC world.


iGary,
quote:
There is a free virus cheacker for OSX, presumably because of the age of the virus it must be treatable, I suppose the main concern from a Mac standpoint is infecting PCs, I don't suppose its causing much hassle on the mac.

Thanks, but I think I've solved the problem by reinstalling Office X and deleting any infected Word documents.

Joe
Posted on: 17 November 2004 by DLF
I thought garyi had deleted his System folder again Big Grin.
Posted on: 18 November 2004 by Mike Hughes
Garyi,

Number of Mac viruses - 6.
Number of Mac owners - 3.

Mike

PS: I will take my tongue out of my cheek at some point.
Posted on: 18 November 2004 by garyi
He he, its alright Mike, you will be one of us soon.

One of us.
Posted on: 18 November 2004 by JonR
quote:
Originally posted by Mike Hughes:
Garyi,

Number of Mac viruses - 6.
Number of Mac owners - 3.


Correction -

Number of Mac owners - 4

JR Winker
Posted on: 21 November 2004 by MarkEJ
Joe;

After a quick scan of your posted link, it looks to me as if this thing isn't actually infecting the Mac per se, but infecting part of the Word component of the Office environment. This indicates two things:

1. The MacOS implementation of Office is sufficiently faithful to its PC equivalent that malware cannot tell the difference.

2. Since the MacOS implementation of Office doesn't AFAIK hack the OS and is effectively unbundled from it, this infection is relatively benign.

In th first instance, I would say delete Office, then run a the scanner, then reinstall Office. This is obviously one of those cases where something to scan suspect files with before they are opened would be worth the money for future peace of mind!

PS: found somthing neat today -- open Address book and select a contact where the postal address has been fully completed. Ctrl + click on the address in the contact panel, and choose "Map of". Great how this stuff hides until you find it...

Best;

Mark