ATTN: virus hoax

ATTN: virus hoax

Paul Prusakowski

5/11/2004

Dear list,

I apologize for letting the last message through by mistake without
verification. The virus mentioned in that message is a hoax. Here is the
correct information about the virus. Before sending any information
regarding viruses to the listserv, please do a search on the virus at google
or at Symantec to check the validity.

Thanks.

Paul E. Prusakowski, CPO, LPO, FAAOP
Moderator, oandp-l


Jdbgmgr.exe Hoax (AKA Teddy Bear Virus)
________________________________________
First Published April, 2002
Updated November, 2002 / January, 2003 /March, 2003
This hoax claims that a virus with a file name jdbgmgr.exe has infected your
computer and that it is undetectable by all Anti-Virus Software. It claims
you must delete this virus manually to avoid damage to your computer data.

This is false, and jdbgmgr.exe is a file found on almost all Windows
systems. Why? Because Microsoft wrote this file for all Windows systems.
The latest incarnation of this hoax claims that jdbgmgr.exe is the infecting
file for the BlankA Virus. Much of the rest of the message has stayed the
same. Some of the versions have been calling jdbgmgr.exe the Teddy Bear
Virus. The warning says jdbgmgr.exe is a virus and urges users to delete
this file. As it turns out, this is a legitimate Windows program. It does
have a teddy bear icon, but this is normal for this program. There is a real
virus called BugBear, but it is unrelated to this file. Bugbear does not
display any bear icons and someone may have made a connection between the
word bear in Bugbear and the icon for the jdbgmgr.exe file. But no
connection exists. This warning is trying to scare you into deleting a
file which is found in virtually all Windows OS versions. It is used to
debug Java programs, but is definitely not a virus and can do no harm to
your computer.

There are several viruses that can target this file and infect it with a
virus. However, the teddy bear icon does not mean this file is infected.

 All the updated anti-virus software programs will detect the presence of a
virus in this file. Scan your system if you want to ease your mind, but
don't delete any file just because of a warning received in an e-mail.
It is not necessary or desirable to delete this program. Just delete the
e-mail scare letter instead. If it is too late and you did delete it you
can get it back by reinstalling the latest version of Internet Explorer.

 However, please note this message from Microsoft technicians:

The Microsoft Debugger Registrar for Java (Jdbgmgr.exe) is only used by
Microsoft Visual J++ 1.1 developers.

If you follow the e-mail message instructions and delete this file, you do
not have to recover it unless you use Microsoft Visual J++ 1.1 to develop
Java programs on Windows XP, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98 Second Edition,
Windows 98, or Windows 95.

For Windows XP, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 98, and
Windows 95: Reinstall Microsoft Virtual Machine (Microsoft VM).