Is this a virus/trojan?

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I had Web Shield, Standard Shield, and Network Shield running when I visited a site that I probably should not have been visiting. :slight_smile: To be honest, I was hoping to find a website that would purposefully try to load a virus on my test machine so I could test avast with something other than eicar. Dumb, I know, but I’m not convinced that the eicar test means very much.

Anyway, I can find no evidence that a virus/trojan even attempted to get onto my machine. I’ve done scans with avast, Bit Defender, and Trend Micro Housecall, and nothing was found. However, I have a zero-byte file that came from that site and I can’t delete it. When I try to delete it I get a message that says the file is in use by another process. I can’t find any processes that would be using this file, especially since it’s an empty file. I tried booting into XP safe mode and the file was still locked.

Is that an indication of virus/trojan that’s doing a great job of hiding itself? As I recall, I started to download a file but the file download didn’t succeed. I suppose it’s possible that the file is simply corrupted.

What do you think?

2

I forgot to mention that I’ve also checked my system with Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, and a2 trojan remover. None of my tests have shown anything interesting but I still wonder why Windows always reports that the file is being used by another process. Weird.

3

Where is the file located?

What is the file name?

What OS are you using?

–lee

4

The file is located in my download directory. I’m using fully patched Win XP Home. I don’t remember the name of the file exactly. I just selected a file at random and started to download it.

This was a warez site that I figured would be ripe ground for testing. The filename is that of one of the many cracked applications that they purported to offer.

5

You could use the “Advanced File Remover” feature in RejZoR’s avast! External Control available from eXcessive Software

6

That’s an excellent idea. Thanks!

7

The Advanced File Removed did the trick!

Thanks, everyone!

John