Spyware Warrior

CalamityJane

We have noticed a large number of Winfixer/ Vundo / Virutmonde Victims have an older version of Sun Java (v. J2SE 1.4.2_03) installed in Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel. Other older or newer versions may also be installed, however, we are wanting to know if you have this version on your system.

If you've been a victim of this malware (or have been helping one), would you please take the time to answer the post in this thread what versions of Sun Java you have on your PC (look in Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel and copy each version back here)

Why do we want to know?

Fellow MS MVP Steve Wechsler (aka MowGreen) wrote to Sun Microsystems (makers of Sun Java) to express the concerns raised in the Security Community that autoupdaters of Sun Java do not uninstall previous (vulnerable) versions of the program. He asked for clarification that if a User utilizes the automatic update mechanism of the JRE the previous vulnerable version is left on the system, and that those previous vulnerable versions can still be called by malware. The folks at Sun Microsystems wrote back confirming this is true and they would be investigating updating the java.com pages and the auto update uninstallation issue. That was back in February and to date, none of these issues has been resolved.

Therefore all users are encouraged to please check in your Control Panel, under Add/Remove programs and uninstall any older versions of Sun Java. And in the future, remember to remove older versions of Java when you automatically update to a newer version to avoid exploitation of older versions left on your system.

The most current version (as of Nov 8 2005) of Sun Java is:
Java Runtime Environment Version 5.0 Update 5

To check your version to see if it is the latest version, Please go to this link to verify your version to get the updates needed:
http://www.java.com/en/download/windows_automatic.jsp

You'll need to use IE and allow ActiveX for this update. Follow the instructions on that page to verify Your Java software

Or you can get the manual download here:
http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

Please remember to uninstall all old versions of Sun Java
_________________
Microsoft MVP 2003-2008, Windows - Security

dojahsan · Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2005 1:08 pm Post subject: cannot remove old java!

i tried to uninstall my old java runtime but it wouldnt go away. i installed the new version, but my old version still seems to be there... my old version is java runtime SE 1.4.2_05
any idea of how to remove this? i have already tried to remove it in safemode but it wouldnt budge.

CalamityJane · Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2005 4:39 pm Post subject:

Did you go to the control panel in Add/Remove programs?

dojahsan · Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 7:29 pm Post subject: thank you

yes thank you, that website you posted helped resolved my problem, now all i have to do is get rid of winfixer

dojahsan · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 1:56 pm Post subject:

ive been trying to remove this spyware and adware manually, but i cant get it to go away, can you guide me along so i can remove this stuff.... much appriciated

lukekim91 · Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 3:31 pm Post subject:

I have java 1.3.1 and it says that the file directory can not be found when I try to uninstall it.