Possible GMAT Prep Virus!

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Possible GMAT Prep Virus!

by beatthegmat » Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:46 am
Hi Beat The GMAT Community:

A community member reached out to me today to let me know that he discovered a possible virus bundled with the GMATPrep software, offered by MBA.com
Went to the McAfee site and found out that they discovered this new variant on 3/27/09. My virus definitions were updated Saturday night and a subsequent scan of my system early Sunday morning found the virus in the GMATPrep folder in the Programs directory. The file that was quarantined is obviously the HTML viewer so none of the HTML content of the GMATPrep can be displayed.

I went back to their website and re-downloaded the install package in hopes that they had perhaps fixed the issue. During the install process, McAfee halted the install and notified me that the same file with the same Trojan had been quarantined.

I notified customer service at www.mba.com but have yet to get a response.

In answer to your question, no, the download worked fine, it was during the install that the virus was detected.
If you guys install this software, be sure to have an updated virus scan package on your computer. As we get more information about this, we'll share with you here.

Thanks very much.
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by rsadana1 » Tue Mar 31, 2009 7:46 am
I experienced a similar situation.

I installed GMATPrep yesterday and it worked just fine. However, today morning when I opened the screen, it open just fine, but it gave me an "Application Error" when I clicked on the right hand menu of About GMATPrep and About GMAT. I use AVG antivirus program and it notified me of a GMATPrep Trojan Virus Generic.10AAXL (Not sure about the last 4 characters).

I quarantined the virus, uninstalled the application, Shutdown my computer, reinstalled it and restarted the application. It again gave me same error when I clicked on the first two tabs. It said that it cannot find HTMLViewer.exe.

However, just when I was about to reply to this post, I tried clicking Practice Test and the link worked just fine.

So I am experiencing a different problem in that the virus is somehow blocking the html content to be displayed through this application.

Its interesting that potentially there are two types of viruses related to GMATPrep, both appearing on the same day.

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by beatthegmat » Tue Mar 31, 2009 10:12 am
I got an update from the original member who alerted me about this virus. He e-mailed GMAC himself and got the following response:
Thank you for your email. We have initiated an investigation into the virus
you reported in the GMATPrep software. It would aid in our investigation if
you could provide the full details of how you accessed the software and how
you discovered the virus including the operating system, the internet
browser, and security software you are using/used.
If you guys are experiencing similar issues like this member and rsadana1, please share here. I'll try to get some follow up from GMAC myself.

Thanks,

Eric
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by rsadana1 » Tue Mar 31, 2009 10:47 am
Thanks Eric. I will send GMAC an email with the details of what exactly happened with the virus in my case.

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Whats the deal?

by LL » Mon Apr 06, 2009 8:19 am
:( :?: :(

Over the weekend I had the exact same issue as reported by "rsadana1" above.

@ beatthegmat & rsadana1, have either of you received any further update/info on this matter from mba.com or otherwise?

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by beatthegmat » Mon Apr 06, 2009 9:43 am
No updates yet unfortunately. I'll share news as soon as I hear it!
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GMAT Prepsoftware

by dinocencio » Sun Apr 12, 2009 2:14 am
i am having exactly the same problem encountered above. i have already submitted an inquiry to GMAC. hopefully they can address the problem soon..

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by beatthegmat » Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:39 pm
Got an official response from GMAC today:

Several users trying to install or run GMATPrep software have gotten a message saying the HTMLViewer.exe file is infected with a virus. The GMATPrep file has been health tested thoroughly against virus software from most major vendors and been given a clean bill of health.

GMATPrep is not showing up on software from some major vendors, including Norton. Here’s the status of GMATPrep false positives by anti-viral software program:

· McAfee. If your virus definitions are up to date, you should not experience any problems with GMATPrep. False positives from several weeks ago were fixed with the newest version.

· AVG. AVG has been contacted, but the false positives are still appearing. You can set up the software to ignore GMATPrep when it scans for viruses. Here’s what you should do:

1) Configure the AVG software to prevent it from scanning the GMATPrep file during installation.

a. Open the AVG program. From the Tools menu, choose Advanced settings and then choose PUP exceptions. Click the Add exception button.

b. Locate GMATPrepSetup.exe as the file you want to exclude from the virus scan.

c. Click the Add button to save the setting.

2) Install the GMATPrep software.

3) Exclude the GMATPrep directory from being scanned when you run the application.

a. Open the AVG program. From the Tools menu, choose Advanced settings.

b. In the left pane, select Resident Shield and choose Exceptions.

c. Click the Add path button and locate the directory you want to exclude from the virus scan, normally Program Files\GMATPrep.

d. Click the OK button to save the setting.

· Norman and Panda Norman and Panda have been contacted, but as of April 24, 2009, no response has been received.

Please email [email protected] if you need further assistance.
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