Posted by Virus Bulletin on Jul 29, 2002
After re-testing, McAfee's VirusScan product gains a VB 100% award.
Unfortunately an error occurred in Virus Bulletin's Windows XP comparative review (see VB June 2002, p.21): the results for Network Associates' McAfee VirusScan were replaced by those for NAI VirusScan. The correct results for McAfee VirusScan are reproduced in the table below.
The samples missed by VirusScan were mainly in the polymorphic set, where the offending items were Sepultura, W32/CTX and W32/Fosforo. The .TMP file dropped by W32/Nimda.A was undetected both in the XP review and in this month's NetWare tests. The file is included in the standard set as something of a curiosity file since, although it contains Nimda's code and is dropped by Nimda, this file is not a threat under any normal circumstances.
The results reported in the review for clean set scanning and false positives were correct. In light of the fact that no false positives were encountered and all In the Wild scans resulted in full detection, McAfee VirusScan is rightfully awarded a VB 100 % award for its performance. VB offers its apologies to Network Associates and to readers for the confusion.
| McAfee VirusScan | On Demand | On Access | |
| ITW File | number missed | 0 | 0 |
| % detection | 100% | 100% | |
| ITW Boot | number missed | 0 | 0 |
| % detection | 100% | 100% | |
| ITW Overall | number missed | 0 | 0 |
| % detection | 100% | 100% | |
| Macro Virus | number missed | 0 | 0 |
| % detection | 100% | 100% | |
| Polymorphic | number missed | 8 | 8 |
| % detection | 99.86% | 99.86% | |
| Standard | number missed | 1 | 2 |
| % detection | 99.98% | 99.87% | |
