McAfee say software flaw could turn PC into spam server

McAfee, creator of world renowned Anti virus software have said that there is a flaw in one of their products which could cause vulnerability issues for the PC, potentially leaving the machine open to distribute spam.

The company, who are now a part of Intel Corporation, disclosed the flaw in a message to customers on their website yesterday.

Ian Bain, McAfee spokesman said at least one customer had fallen victim to the software problem, which leverages a flaw in a service known as McAfee SaaS, for Total Protection.

The web oriented service is meant to protect customers from viruses hidden in emails and websites. Bain said that the flaw was in a piece of software that McAfee customers install on their computers to enable them to use the service. McAfee software engineers are currently working on the problem and expect to have the bug fixed today at some stage.

This isn't the first time McAfee software has been at fault for some major issues. A patch to their software in April 2010 caused McAfee Anti Virus software to mistakenly identify part of Windows XP operating system as a virus. This caused issues for thousands of customers, including 100 large corporations who used the software at the time.

Kitguru says: Parent company Intel will want this fixed as soon as possible.

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