VBS:LoveLetter

At 0520 my avast detected a LoveLetter virus. I was asleep. I click on “Log Viewer”, but can only get this line:
12/7/2005 5:20"29 AM SYSTEM Sign of “VBS:LoveLetter” has been found in "http://mail.g

My first question is how can I read the rest of that line?

My second question is that the sign which greeted me when I jiggled my mouse and I could see the screen indicated that by clicking on “About connection” the download would be cancelled, so no problem. My question is what download? This looks like it was intercepted in gmail, no? I had been asleep for at least 30 minutes before 0520, so I wasn’t downloading anything. I don’t get it, and sure would appreciate some help.

One more thing, I right clicked that line above and exported the line and here’s what I got:

11/16/2005 6:30:03 PM a 816 Sign of “VBS:Malware [Gen]” has been found in “C:\WINDOWS\Temp_avast4_\PxB1D3.tmp\Dummy.class” file.

Now I was just looking at the search results about LoveLetter and I see some references to “false alerts”. As I see what was ‘exported’ has nothing to do with the alert of a few hours ago, am I dealing with a false alert?

What struck me right away when I saw that ‘g…’ was that I was under the impression that you can’t be threatened by a virus through gmail, Yahoo, etc. unless you actually ckick on an email sent and then only if you download an attachment. Am I wrong?

Thank you.

Isn’t it only enlarging the column width? Take the separator (slider) of the column width and go to right…?

I do not understand. Can you rephrase or post a screenshot?

Are you sure you’re exporting the same line?
False alerts (false postives) have nothing to do with this ‘strange’ behavior.

Outstanding Tech. Thank you. I had no idea those columns could be manipultaed in such a way.

That gave me the further idea that right click dragging might get me the full list on notepad, and it did. Isolating this particular incident/alert gave me the following:

12/7/2005 5:20:09 AM SYSTEM 1516 Sign of “VBS:LoveLetter” has been found in “http://mail.google.com/mail/?&ik=9c6cf00f95&view=tl&search=cat&start=0&cat=!!!LINKS!!!&tlt=edit===edit===more edit===etc., etc. & so on” file

So I get back to my original question of how an alert could happen when there is no activity going on? As I noted above, I was sleeping. One thing that is interesting is that this file is an email I sent to myself that contains about 7 or 8 links I need for my work. And that was open, but an email can’t be sent to an open email, right? I know that sounds weird, so let’s just stick to the key point that there was no activity taking place when the “ALERT” was initiated at 0520 hrs.

And that takes me to trying to clarifying the passage you didn’t understand, Tech. Simply putting it the computer screen was black, as when no activity is taking place and after the screen saver stops, and when I jiggled the mouse to view the screen there was the Avast warning flashing at me that the virus had been found/stopped, whatever. Just that standard window with the info inside etc. Nothing unusual there. Except like I said, the initial alert took place while I was sleeping and the computer was resting, so to speak.

I hope this helps you out, Tech.

And again, thanks for helping out here.

Living and learning.

You were sleeping but are you sure the computer was sleeping too?
Haven’t you configure your email program to check mail from time to time? Do you use any Pop notifier or Spam killer that does that automatically?

In normal conditions, you’re right…
Anyway, avast protected you and that is what counts 8)

Thanks for getting back to me, again.

Nope. No auto anything with the email programs. I’m not even sure gmail allows that, does it? Anyway, I don’t like any of that auto stuff. By my two fingers is good enough for me.

And you’re right, avast protected me. And it’s been a good product. No complaints. I just don’t like mysteries. I’ve found in the past that funny things happening sometimes are an indication of something yet to strike. Or an indication of something deeper that’s wrong but isn’t so apparent. That’s why all the questions.

No, nothing automatic in Gmail…

Me neither…
I would suggest you fully scan with antispywares and antitrojans applications.
Ad-Aware, Spybot Search and Destroy, A-squared, Ewido or Microsoft AntiSpyware or TrojanHunter (shareware).

I did a thorough avast scan and the only thing that came up were some files it couldn’t scan.

Should that be enough?

And what should I do about those that it couldn’t scan? In fact, why is it that they couldn’t be scanned?

I fear we’re getting off topic, but I’ll stop the questions after this and let the thread remain dormant.

Once again, Tech, thanks for the responses.

Generally you don’t have to worry about them:

  1. password protected files can’t be scanned. A lot of programs protect some files of them.
  2. corrupted archive files or archived with old version packers, so avast engine could unpack them and scan them.
  3. files being used by Windows.