Where Did It Come From?

TheWatcher

Hey all, i just formatted and re-installed WinXP home, i installed BD 10 and signed on to the net to update it, i didn't go to a single website or do anything but update when BD alerted me that it detected a virus/infection. Peed.Trojan.Gen (i see by this forum that it gets around) in my win/sys32 folder, file name ".exe" no name, just the extension.

My question is where did it come from? Granted i haven't put SP2 in yet, so i'm running with no service packs and IE 6... but how is it possible to get infected, or an attempted infection anyway, without actually going anywhere?

Thanks for the time all!

alexcrist

Hello TheWatcher,

It is possible to get infected even before you finish installing Windows. Especially because you say you don't even have SP2, it means that your system is extremely vulnerable to all threats out there.

There might be worms in your network, worms which scan all computers in the network and, when they find an unprotected one (such a fresh Windows, without any Firewall/antivirus...like a Windows without SP), it just infects it. It doesn't needs your help, nor your agreement.

Other ways to get infected are by using infected installation kits/USB sticks/ etc... Maybe you had this virus on some installation disk and you installed it after installing Windows.

I assume you already fixed this problem (since you didn't ask how to delete it). But next time you re-install your system, consider these:

- Windows installation should take place with the network cable unplugged / Wi-Fi disabled

- be sure to install an AV / Firewall before you connect to the internet

- use only official installers. Before you install anything, make sure that the installation kit is clean (drivers and software on original CDs are always clean, so you can trust the software that came on your system's CDs/DVDs).

Also, you might want to consider upgrading to BitDefender 2008, because it has better detection/cleaning capabilities.

Cris.