December Update for Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool Released

Yesterday we released this month's update of the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. This update includes three new malware families: F4IRootkit, Ryknos, and IRCBot. This tool now cleans over 50 of the most prevalent malware families.

This release, as in the past, is available as an interactive web-based cleaner, as a downloadable executable, as well as through Windows Update, Microsoft Update, and Windows Server Update Services.

With the inclusion of rootkit cleaning of the F4IRootkit in this release, we now have cleaning in all our tools: Windows AntiSpyware beta, Windows OneCare Live beta, Windows Live Safety Center beta, and now the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool.

In addition to adding new malware families to the tool each month, we also make sure that families we already include are updated with signatures for new variants of that family. In particular, I'll call out that we've included cleaning of the Sober.Z email worm (also known by it's Common Malware Enumeration (CME) ID, CME-681), as well as many other variants of Sober that have been released in the last month. As a note, we had signatures of this variant of Sober on Windows Live Safety Center beta and in the Windows OneCare beta since November 22. If you haven't tried these two cool technologies, please give them a try!

Thanks for your interest,
-JasonG

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Jason Garms

Architect & Group PM
Anti-Malware Technology Team
Microsoft Corporation

Team Blog: https://blogs.technet.com/antimalware