virus in my mac

[jotamurray]

Lately my word is doing weird things like...
1.- when i open my docs it advises "that some macros may contain virus".
2.- when closing down a file I get a message "word could not fire event"

And... when a Pc opens a doc made in my computer it gets a hi risk virus warning: W97M.MARKER.GEN

 

[Queso]

Yep, Macs are vulnerable to some Word macro viruses just like PCs. Quit Word, then find your Normal.dot file and drag it to the Trash (it should be in Home directory/Documents/Microsoft User Data). When you fire up Word, the file will be recreated, but this time should be virus free.

You'll also want to use a virus scanner on your Word documents to see which of them are also infected. Here's a free one that should pick up that virus.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

i dont know a lot about them, but macros in MS Office have been known to be containers for Mac viruses.

i think the first is a general warning, so nothing much to worry about there.

Could you take a screenshot of the second event please? or is it just that message?

EDIT: looks like dynamicv beat me to it

 

[jotamurray]

Could you take a screenshot of the second event please? or is it just that message?

EDIT: looks like dynamicv beat me to it

yep...
there it goes

 

[quigleybc]

Yep, Macs are vulnerable to some Word macro viruses just like PCs. Quit Word, then find your Normal.dot file and drag it to the Trash (it should be in Home directory/Documents/Microsoft User Data). When you fire up Word, the file will be recreated, but this time should be virus free.

You'll also want to use a virus scanner on your Word documents to see which of them are also infected. Here's a free one that should pick up that virus.

This is a great tip.. (maybe put this in the guides?)

I'll have to remember this..

 

[dpaanlka]

I believe the proper way to say it is, Microsoft Office is vulnerable to Word Macro viruses (as it has always been). They do not leave the containment of Microsoft Office.

 

[jotamurray]

Yep, Macs are vulnerable to some Word macro viruses just like PCs. Quit Word, then find your Normal.dot file and drag it to the Trash (it should be in Home directory/Documents/Microsoft User Data). When you fire up Word, the file will be recreated, but this time should be virus free.

You'll also want to use a virus scanner on your Word documents to see which of them are also infected. Here's a free one that should pick up that virus.

Deleting the normal. file has eliminated the weird message when closing down a document.
Clamxav does not seem to find infected files but when i send any office doc I send it with virus.

I should get a proper antivirus, right? - I bought Intego's Virusbarrier last year but because it never actually found any virus I decided to not re-new and unistall.

 

[annk]

I believe the proper way to say it is, Microsoft Office is vulnerable to Word Macro viruses (as it has always been). They do not leave the containment of Microsoft Office.

I should get a proper antivirus, right? - I bought Intego's Virusbarrier last year but because it never actually found any virus I decided to not re-new and unistall.

Jotamurray, I think dpaanika's post means that you don't have to worry about protecting your Mac; only Microsoft Office is affected by these macro viruses. If you get a macro virus, it won't spread to the rest of your computer, but you'll get the kind of error messages shown in this thread.

 

[jotamurray]

Jotamurray, I think dpaanika's post means that you don't have to worry about protecting your Mac; only Microsoft Office is affected by these macro viruses. If you get a macro virus, it won't spread to the rest of your computer, but you'll get the kind of error messages shown in this thread.

Thanks... but I'm always telling my fellow workers how sh*ite their pcs are... and now they are afraid of recieving anything from my mac.

If I install openoffice... and i open a supposedly infected file will i still be spreading virus?

 

[frankblundt]

This is the only reason to get anti-virus software for the Mac - to de-infect MS Office documents that get sent to you so that you don't spread them on to anyone else when you send them out.

I would imagine that the Macro viruses, like Macros themselves, are limited to Office. Any other Word processing app on the Mac is unlikely to have the same issues (although the files they produce might not be compatible with PCs running Word)

If the recipients don't need to edit the documents you could always print them as a PDF (not just safer, but smaller and prettier too)

 

[annk]

Thanks... but I'm always telling my fellow workers how sh*ite their pcs are... and now they are afraid of recieving anything from my mac.

If I install openoffice... and i open a supposedly infected file will i still be spreading virus?

Here is Microsoft's FAQ on macro viruses.