McAfee 5958 – McAfee Virus as Update?

McAfee sent the McAfee 5958 dat update for its users. Unfortunately, the McAfee 5958 dat has been identifying a normal Windows file as a virus. It seems to affect Windows XP SP3.

McAfee Inc. confirmed that a 5958 software update (not “Error code of 5958?) it posted at 9 a.m. Eastern time caused its antivirus program for corporate customers to misidentify a harmless file. It has posted a replacement update for download.

Here is a fix as posted by someone named Ken Carrier from Ohio:

1.download sdat5957.exe from mcafee place on thumb drive

2. Copy a svchost.exe from a working machine running windows xp SP3 to the same thumb drive

3. Boot the infected pc in safe mode, varies for different types of machines

4. Insert thumb drive on infected machine

5. Open command prompt “Hit the windows key on your keyboard, usually next to the left Alt Key” + R

6. type cmd, hit enter

7. you will need to get to the drive for the thumb drive, in most cases this will most likely be E: or F:. To do this in the command prompt type E: or F: and hit Enter.

8. Once in the thumb drive type, sdat5957.exe /f

* This will force the downloaded 5958 DAT file to rollback to a previous state or in this case 5957

9. now type copy svchost.exe “C:\windows\system32?, and then hit enter

10. Next you will need to reboot

11. Type shutdown -r -f , this will tell you that your computer will shutdown in 30 seconds. The -r will tell it to restart and the -f will force all other programs to shutdown as well.