Downloading media files? Beware the Trojan.Brisv.A!


Virus A malicious trojan horse virus that is spread through infected media files has been making the rounds since July of last year. But it seems to have been picking up steam lately.

Symantec is warning people who routinely download media files such as .asf, .mp2, .mp3, .wma and .wmv files from random websites or P2P services such as BitTorrent, that these files might be infected with a trojan horse known as Trojan.Brisv.A.

If you've ended up with this virus on your PC, two things will happen.

First, the virus will look for the media files listed above and infect them with special code.

Second, when a user attempts to play one of these files using Windows Media Player, the special code attempts to open a URL which contains additional malware.

It's not clear what this malware could be or what it does, so it's probably best to avoid the problem altogether. If you've got anti-virus protection on your machine with up to date definition files, you're more than likely safe from this threat. If you don't, or you think you may already have the virus, you can download a free removal tool from Symantec.

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8 comments

  2. Troy

    Hey John,

    If your antivirus can detect it, it will usually show you the file location. For me it was on a random music file. After running the removal tool, you should be able to delete the file without it blocking/asking for admin access. Otherwise you can use teh malicious software removal if you have Norton, the downloadable removal tool didn't find it on my system, but the security center found and removed it instantly on my system. (you have to click remove), Just search the history of security threats, it should pop up if you ran a scan.

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  3. Britani

    I just got this yesterday, and I also tried the removal tool and it couldn't detect the virus, then I ran on scan with Norton and it still didn't find anything..what can I do?

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  4. Simon Cohen

    @ Britani: if the removal tool couldn't detect the virus and neither could Norton, what makes you think you have the virus?

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  5. Frances

    Norton picked this up on my computer. First I did the update,ran the whole scan again (takes and hour and 15) still there. Then I down loaded the free fix, ran it, then reran the scan, No Luck. Then I ran the fix in safe mode, again No Luck. Then I realized the media file was one on another account so I ran the fix on that account , in safe mode and it found it and removed it. It took me hours and hours to finally figure it all out.

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  6. Keith

    the removal tool didnt work for me either.i could click remove for it on the history of security threats but it says ''risk level: high, risk state: not safe to remove'' think it can only be removed manually , how can i resolve this ?

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  7. Carl

    Norton couldn't remove it, the free fix couldn't find it. Start the computer in safe mode and just delete it. Worked for me.

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  8. Alicia

    Trojan.brisv virus came through a media file from LIMEWIRE, Norton detected it, made me download the removal software and didnt detect it, even when I ran it in safe mode it didnt detect it. I was able to remove the file that had the virus but still got notifications from Norton that I had the virus. A couple days ago my computer was infested with malware, I couldnt get on the internet. Norton wanted to charge $100 to remove it. Instead I decided to save the $100 and ran a system recovery on my computer and started from fresh.

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