Microsoft Says Symantec Software Is Spyware

Windows AntiSpyware

Microsoft has corrected the false flagging, it said Monday. Symantec, meanwhile, announced that it had crafted a free tool to repair damaged installations of its Symantec AntiVirus (SAV) Corporate Edition and Symantec Client Security (SCS).

The problem stemmed from a Windows AntiSpyware Beta 1 update late Thursday, Feb. 9, dubbed "5805, which incorrectly identified a registry key for SAV and SCS as belonging to a password-stealing keylogger known as PWS.Bancos.a, which harks back to 2003.

Microsoft's anti-spyware program prompted users to remove the misidentified registry key; if they did, SAV and SCS stopped working.

"Once this issue was discovered, Microsoft quickly released a new signature set (5807) to remove this false positive," said a Microsoft spokesman Monday. "Both companies are working jointly together to identify the number of affected customers, which we believe to be very limited."

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Early Monday, Microsoft recommended that affected users call on Windows XP's System Restore to restore to a time before the keys were deleted, or reinstall the Symantec software. In a separate statement later Monday, Symantec said it had come up with an automated tool to repair affected systems. "This tool is available at no charge from Symantec Product Support Services," a Symantec spokesman said.

Coincidentally, Microsoft and Symantec -- longtime partners -- last week took jabs at each other over the former's official entrance into the consumer security market.

Symantec made a point, however, to stress that its consumer titles, including Norton Antivirus and Norton Internet Security, were not affected by the Microsoft mistake.