At 18:32 08/12/01, Kathie Bass wrote:
>I have just downloaded Kapersky's AV on a 30 day trial and
>on scanning it noted that SETUP.EXE is corrupted, no other
>information, what does this mean? It isn't telling me what
>setup, so I haven't a clue. TIA


First some background...

When you download a file from the Internet, it is often a
compressed "archive" file...meaning that it contains a number
of smaller files squeezed together so they appear as the one
file. (This saves you the trouble of downloading a possibly
large number of individual files.)

Two of the most common forms of archived files are ZIP files
(you need an unzipper program to open them and see what's
inside) and self extracting archive files (ending in .EXE)
which unzip when you double click them (no 3rd party
unzipper program needed).

Your SETUP.EXE is almost certainly a self extracting archive
file. Kasparsky Antivirus wants to look inside this archive
file and examine its contents, file by file, for viruses.

There are many ways that files can be combined and compressed
to form archive files. Some of these methods are standard
and some are proprietary. When Kasparsky says that a file is
corrupted, it means that it doesn't know how to expand the
file and look inside. Probably, Kasparsky just can't recognize
what method was used to create your SETUP.EXE file. The only
way to get inside SETUP.EXE would be to actually run it...and
no simple antivirus program is going to run each executable
program that it scans.

As an example, I've found that Kasparsky can't get into self
executable archive files from Adaptec and Powerquest...and
I'm sure there are other types as well. (I've checked my
Adaptec and Powerquest files that Kasparsky said were
corrupted and they were in fact NOT corrupted. It's just that
Kasparsky didn't know how to get inside them.) The odds are
that your SETUP.EXE file is compressed using a method that
Kasparsky is not programmed to undo...and that the file is
in fact not corrupted.

That said, I've found that a few of the files that Kasparsky
said were corrupted actually were. (These were cases where
the files wouldn't unzip or wouldn't open when executed.)

I don't hold it against Kasparsky when it reports an archive
is corrupted. The other two antivirus programs I use, Norton
Antivirus and Ontrack Antivirus don't even report archive
files that can't be looked into. (They didn't report the
files of mine that actually were corrupted.)

As to where your SETUP.EXE file is, my copy of Kasparsky
shows all infected, corrupted, or password protected files
in the white Object window. It shows the path (location) of
each file (drive\folder, etc.). There is however one thing
that can at first be confusing. If you see a file listed as
C:\SAVED\NIFTY.ZIP/SETUP.EXE
then the file SETUP.EXE is inside the file NIFTY.ZIP. This
is indicated by the slant "/" which is the reverse of the
back slant "\" normally used to indicate a folder in DOS or
Windows. If you were to look on my hard drive in the
C:\SAVED folder, you wouldn't find SETUP.EXE because the
file is hidden inside the NIFTY.ZIP file. (I of course made
up the names SAVED and NIFTY.)

Regards,
Bill

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