[foofus-tools] General pwdump question

[Teh Fizzgig]

David Hopper wrote:

> While running a Norton anti-virus scan on my computer, it found pwdump and
> said it could not get rid of it.  During a long chat session with the Norton
> people, I was told that this was potentially dangerous virus which could
> disable my computer.  They would remotely edit my registry for $100 to
> remove it.  I put them on hold.

Well, now isn't that clever. "Oh look, our AV product doesn't work, so 
pay us more and we'll take steps that we could tell you over the phone 
in about 2 minutes." Quite the scam they are running, IMO. Do NOT let 
them talk you into this.


> Further investigation has led me to believe that this is not dangerous at
> all, but I don't believe I need it, and it is annoying my anti-virus
> software.  I would appreciate any information.  Also, is there a relatively
> easy way to remove it from my system ??

Did YOU install/run pwdump? If the answer is no, then I agree, there is 
a chance that you have been compromised. The program in and of itself is 
not dangerous, but if someone other than you put it there, that raises 
the stakes. That means someone else DID, and it's important to find out 
how and why.

As far as removing this, you should be able to reboot and delete it 
normally. If not, let us know your operating system type and we'll 
figure it out.

--fizzgig