threat level = moderate(RealVNC) what should i do?

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Guest

Hi,

I have a thinkpad, a recent scan with mircrosoft antisyware beta1 revealed 1
thread found. Details of the threat are as follows:
Name:Real VNC
Loc: c:\Program files\xpoint\sas\bin\omnithread_rt.dll
Threat level: Moderate
Action : Ignore(i chose this)

Should i quarentaine this item or delete this?

thank you,

with regards,
murali
 
Hi murali;
If your administrator or yourself installed VNC, probably neither quarantine nor
delete. It is a widely used application to remotely access/manage one computer
from any other computer. This is known as a Commercial Remote Control
Application. If you didn't install it yourself, check with your administrator.
Only in the case were no one in authority has purposely installed VNC, should
you be concerned... so probably you should continue to Always Ignore it in your
scans.
 
The issue with some VNC variants is that they can be active--i.e. someone
can be watching what you are doing, without any explicit signal to you.

Do what Dave M said. VNC is a very useful tool, but the user of a machine
with it installed should always be aware that it is there--and that's what
the detection is doing for you.
 
Bill Sanderson said:
The issue with some VNC variants is that they can be active--i.e. someone
can be watching what you are doing, without any explicit signal to you.

Do what Dave M said. VNC is a very useful tool, but the user of a machine
with it installed should always be aware that it is there--and that's what
the detection is doing for you.
Click to expand...

Hi,
I am the only administrator of this machine. I use this at home. I haven't
installed real VNC. When i bought this thinkpad it came preloaded with
software. It was as simple as plug-in & use. Now should i delete or remove
real vnc.

with regards,
ashwin
 
Hi murali;
I'd vote remove, through the control panel Add/Remove, not using an AntiSpyware
removal since an A-S is going to be much more brutal. If your not using it, you
can do yourself the favor of getting back more storage space in the process...
if, on the other hand, there's no uninstall available, then MSAS might be your
best removal option.
 
Dave M said:
Hi murali;
I'd vote remove, through the control panel Add/Remove, not using an AntiSpyware
removal since an A-S is going to be much more brutal. If your not using it, you
can do yourself the favor of getting back more storage space in the process...
if, on the other hand, there's no uninstall available, then MSAS might be your
best removal option.
Click to expand...

Hi,

I don't know which software is real vnc a part of. Certainly not the ones
that i installed. I am sure it should be part of the s/w that ibm installed
(part of their pre-installed packages). I have emailed them asking if its ok
to remove all of their s/w from thinkpad. One of their software that
particularly bothers me is the support.com. A google search revealed that its
functionality is similar to spywear, but a legit one. It monitors my acivity
& gathers all required information & sends them to ibm. When this thinkpad is
no longer underr warranty nor have i bought any of their paid support
facilities (since i don't face any problems with this thinkpad) then why
should they be monitoring my acitity. I think they are invading my privacy.
Only thing that stops me from uninstalling support.com is that it may cause
my thinkpad to become unstable. Could this be true? I have emailed them about
this. There is no reply from them. Its almost a week now & no reply till now
from ibm.

with regards,
murali
 
You could wait for the wheels of IBM to eventually churn out an answer, although
it could take a long time.

Without you calling IBM and initiating a real VNC session, they shouldn't be
monitoring your online activity under normal circumstances. I think you should
be able to disable VNC, perhaps using services, without full removal easily.
On Windows XP, you can go to Start > Run > type 'services.msc' and scroll down
to the "VNC Server" service, right-click it and hit properties. Try changing
the Service Properties from started/automatic to disabled. Another thought is
to block it in your firewall, or to disable it at startup.

Bill Sanderson uses this feature I believe, perhaps he can give a more technical
response. Or, there's the VNC site:

http://www.realvnc.com/swish-e/search
 
I agree with Dave. If VNC is not there for YOUR purposes, get it out of
there quickly. It is probably benign--perhaps a tool of the system building
process--but you don't want it there unless you intend to use it and control
the password to it.
--
 
I can agree with that advice too--that's a good method to disable the server
portion of VNC, and any risk that it might be used without your knowledge.
It is easy enough to reverse that change and start the service if it is
really needed at some future time.

--
 
Hi,

You are right. It has been 2 weeks now, no reply from them. The other day
when i complaint them about how bad the their services were, there was a
immediate reply. I think its a waste of time to expect a mail from them.
AFAIK the mail reaached them but they don't wana reply. I have turned off the
service. But actually i want to remove all of their s/w from my thinkpad.
Only thing that stops me from doing so is the fear that it could render my
windows xp home unstable & later unusable. If i were to use the feature
restore to factory settings, them it becomes stupid to unistall the s/w in
the first place. I don't want them, but i can't remove them, ibbm is nnot
responding, i don't know what to do.

with regards,
murali
 
....they're probably all on holiday at the beach. I'm having the same problem
with another customer support group. You're safe for now with it disabled.
Just relax until January, then knock on their door again.
 
Leaving the VNC Server service set to disabled should have absolutely no
effect, in terms of stability, on your system. And it is easily reversable.
I'd not worry about it a bit.

--
 
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