Help... Program Error - Sychost.exe has errors

[RichB]

Can anyone help with this? Just this morning I have started get a Program Error box appearing after I have been on the internet for a few min's i.e. Pistonheads!

The error reads "Sychost.exe has generated errors and will be closed by windows you will need to restart the program" "An error log is being created"

The effect appears to be that I cannot cut-n-paste from doc's etc.

Anyone got any ideas what it is? How I fix it? And why it suddenely started this morning?

Cheers Rich...

[Don]

I think its a failed attack of the feckin Blaster worm that's going about at the mo...I think.

You need Microsoft's patch here...

www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-026.asp

You may also need Symantec's removal tool...

www.symantec.com

[plotloss]

Its a program that runs to ascertain which services that windows should start.

Something somewhere is having trouble, its dropping into a loop and pinching all your virtual memory.

This may provide some useful pointers...

[RichB]

I loaded the M/S patch and used the Symantec virus checker for the Blaster WOrm but it wasn't found. (at least I won't get it now)

Plotless I'm not quite sure where to start looking on the web site you pointed me too though, any ideas? Rich...

[Mikej]

Sorry for the dim question - how do I know if I am Windows XP 32 bit or 64 bit ???.

Cheers,

Mike.

[plotloss]

If you paid less than £30K for your pc then its 32bit.

[Mikej]

Cheers, 32K it is then.

Mike.

[agent006]

I'm getting this as well. Got that virusy thingy. Deleted it. When svchost crashes i can't open any new explorer windows, thus no links from PH, thus making my day almost unbearable.

[rorschach]

The exploit the worm uses relies on using OS dependant offsets - Win2K and WinXP. It decides [randomly] beforehand which exploit to use. If the exploit is incorrect for the target then the RPC service will usually crash but as the exploit failed, no trace of the expolit binary will be found on the system. Looking at a disassembly of the worm itself, it is a really shoddy piece of code so the overall impact should be pretty limited (in global internet terms) due to some major design flaws. Home users should consider a personal firewall as well as applying the patch.