Live CD Distro/Anti Virus

Linkex

Linkex

Linkex

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4 May 2011
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This weekend I have offered to go round and fix a friends PC - from the sounds of it, its totally infected with viruses, and the browser has been hijacked so you can't view any web pages. I've dealt with these kinds of things before for her, and its always arduous. This time I would like to be prepared with a live CD.

So, imagine you are in my situation - you are going to fix the above machine, with very little prior knowledge of the problem, provided by a very non-technical user. Reinstalling windows is an option, but the user would rather repair if possible.

What's on your live CD (and why) to ensure you are ready for anything?
 
A live CD will not be slowed down by all the **** on her system trying to run at the same time - the whole process will be faster
If the virus has any "counter-measures" to defend against AV scans, they will not work against a scan from a live CD
If I want to go online to look up specifics about removing a virus, I can do so from a Live CD, not something I could do from within windows when the browser has been hijacked.

I appreciate the input, but I understand what I am doing and why I want to do it - However I do not use linux day to day, so I do not know what has come out in the last year, which is why I would like suggestions from people who do. If not, I'll use Knoppix and a couple of linux AV packages.
 
KIA said:
First approach should be boot to safe mode and run MBAM with latest definitions. It will take care of 90% of malware.
Everything I know about malware tells me that Live CD would have a better success rate than scanning within the infected OS, as well as being generally quicker assuming the crap is slowing the host OS down.

Now, I'm happy to be corrected, but to my mind that suggests that Live CD is the better option because with safe boot scan, you have to then re-run with Live CD 10% of the time anyway.

If this is not valid, please feel free to explain why.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
as I say, if you have a reason not to use the boot cd I will listen, but just saying its slow is not valid. we've all seen PCs ****ed up by users, where they can take 20 mins just to laid into windows and fire up a scan, a live cd would be much faster in that situation.

not come across hirens before, looks like exactly what i wanted to know. many thanks.
 
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