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When submitting a sample through WebImunne there are several questions that you are asked to fill out regarding your operating system, the Anti Virus product you are using, and information about the file/s that you are submitting. Filling this information out as completely as possible will assist Avert in processing your sample quickly.

With any sample that is submitted to Avert via E-mail it is best that you provide additional information on what symptoms you are seeing and basic information on your operating system. Providing the below information along with your sample will help speed the sample review process:

• A list of all files contained in the sample submission, including a brief description of where or how the files were found
• What symptoms cause you to suspect that your machine is infected
• Whether any products find a virus (version number, company, virus name given)
• Your McAfee Antivirus Product information (Product, Engine and Dat versions)
• System details that may be relevant (Operating System, Service Packs)
• Your name, company name, phone number and email address if possible

Before submitting any samples to Avert, it is important that you continue reading this page in order to understand everything that is needed when submitting a sample to Avert.

Maximizing The Chance Of Capturing The Possible Virus

When capturing a sample for Avert, it is best that your machine is running in the apparently infected state. This means ensuring that the machine is started up as normal; not started up from a boot disk, in safe mode, or booted to a command prompt.

Capturing the Samples

Usually there is a file that you feel is suspicious and that is what you will want to submit to Avert. However, there can be additional files associated with threats and you will want to try and capture as many of those as possible.

Before starting to capture files for submission, create a temporary folder on your system in which to store any files that you will be submitting to Avert. Creating C:\AvertSamples would be a good folder as the name explains what is in the folder, as well as making it easy to browse to when ready to package and submit the samples.

• On Windows XP systems, click START RUN, type MSCONFIG and hit ENTERClick the Startup tab . If any files in the COMMAND field do not look familiar, copy those files to the temporary folder you created.
• Non-Windows XP users:
  • Run Regedit and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Run and review the files associated with this key. If any files do not look familiar, copy them to the temporary folder you created.
  • Run Regedit and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ RunServices and review the files associated with this key. If any files do not look familiar, copy them to the temporary folder you created.
  • Run Regedit and go to HKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Run and review the files associated with this key. If any files do not look familiar, copy them to the temporary folder you created.
  • Open your Win.ini and system.ini files and review the Load= and Run= lines and copy any files associated with those lines to the temporary folder you created.

If you believe that you have a Macro virus:

• Microsoft Word - Copy normal.dot and every file from the Microsoft Office Startup folder, normally located in Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Startup to the temporary folder you created.
• Microsoft Excel - Copy all the files from the \XLSTART folder to the temporary folder you created.
• Microsoft PowerPoint - Copy Blank Presentation.pot to the temporary folder you created.

Packaging the Samples for Delivery

Depending on the submission method that you are going to use, there are different ways to package the files:

WebImmune Submissions With WebImmune, you have the ability to directly upload individual files to Avert' s automated systems. When you logon to WebImmune you will see the Scan A File option on the right hand side of the screen. Clicking that link will take you to a page from which you can browse your system to upload the file.

If you have multiple files to submit to WebImmune you can add the files into a .ZIP file and submit that. When creating this .ZIP file, it is important to understand that the .ZIP can be no more than 3 megabytes in size and can contain no more than 30 files.Additionally, any .ZIP file created must be password-protected using the password infected. Failure to follow these guidelines will cause your submission to be rejected.

E-Mail Submission Unlike WebImmune, when submitting samples via E-mail all samples must be packaged in a .ZIP file. When creating this .ZIP file, it is important to understand that the .ZIP can be no more than 3 megabytes in size and can contain no more than 30 files. Additionally, any .ZIP file created must be password-protected using the password infected. Failure to follow these guidelines will cause your submission to be rejected.

When submitting the sample via E-mail, send it to the global virus_research@avertlabs.com e-mail address. If you are submitting possible Adware or Spyware, submit the sample to spyware_research@avertlabs.com with the subject line "MAS Content".

Standard Mail Submission Copy all the files from the temporary folder that you created onto a floppy diskette, or several if you have too many files to fit on a single floppy diskette.Additionally, if you have a Writable CD you can copy the samples to there as well.Any diskettes or CD's sent to Avert will not be returned.Below are the e-mail addresses for the various Avert sites that are authorized to receive standard mail submissions:

In the US : McAfee Inc.

Virus Research

20460 NW Von Neumann Drive

Suite 100

Beaverton, OR 97006

In Australia: McAfee Inc.

Virus Research

Level 3, 40 Miller St

North Sydney, NSW

Australia 2060

In Germany: McAfee Inc.

Virus Research

Luisenweg 40

20537 Hamburg

Germany

In the UK: McAfee Inc.

Virus Research

Gatehouse Way

Aylesbury, Bucks HP19 3XU

UK

In Europe: McAfee Inc.

Virus Research

Gatwickstraat 25

1043 GL Amsterdam

Netherlands

In Japan: McAfee Inc.

Virus Research

Shibuya Mark City West 20F

1-12-1 Dougenzaka,Shibuya-ku

Tokyo

Japan 150-0043

In India: McAfee Software (India) Pvt. Ltd.

Virus Research

Embassy Golf Links Business Park

Pine Valley - 2nd floor

Off Koramangala Inner Ring Road

Bangalore 560071, India

virus_research@avertlabs.com

What NOT to Send When using standard mail to send samples to Avert only use floppy diskettes or CD's. Any other media (such as ZIP Drives, Hard Drives, Full Computer Systems) will not be reviewed and will not be returned.