How To Remove a Virus From a File in Visual SourceSafe (201378)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Visual SourceSafe for Windows 5.0
  • Microsoft Visual SourceSafe for Windows 6.0
This article was previously published under Q201378

SUMMARY

Your standard virus checker can be applied to the Visual SourceSafe data directory, and in most cases it finds viruses if they exist. Since Visual SourceSafe uses Reverse Deltas to recreate previous versions only, the last checked-in copy exists in its entirety. This could cause problems if a virus exists in an older version. The virus may not be recognizable to the virus checker since the complete "signature" of the virus may not be read.

Depending on where in the history of the file the virus was introduced, some or all of the history may need to be removed. This ensures that no one gets an old, infected copy.

MORE INFORMATION

The following provides a few scenarios of versions of a Visual SourceSafe file infected with a virus and recommended methods on how to clean them.

  1. If your case is: Version 6-Clean
    Version 5-Clean
    Version 4-Clean
    Version 3-Infected
    Version 2-Infected
    Version 1-Infected

    Use the Archive utility to remove versions 1-3. Be sure to store and/or name the archive file appropriately so that no one attempts to restore it.

  2. If your case is: Version 6-Infected
    Version 5-Infected
    Version 4-Infected
    Version 3-Infected
    Version 2-Clean
    Version 1-Clean

    You can use the rollback functionality from the Show History dialog box to destroy versions 3-6. Then check out (latest version is now 2), and copy over a cleaned version of 6, and then check it back in.

  3. If your case is: Version 6-Clean
    Version 5-Clean
    Version 4-Infected
    Version 3-Infected
    Version 2-Clean
    Version 1-Clean

    The best solution is to destroy and re-add the file back to Visual SourceSafe. But if you want to preserve the clean versions, you need to take a few extra steps. These versions do not have the same Time/Date stamps as they had originally and would be numbered versions 1,2, 3, and 4.


First, do a Get on versions 5 and 6 to preserve the contents, and then follow the method described in Case #2. In the last part of that method, check out version 2 and replace version 5 first, check it in, and then check it out again. Replace version 6, check it in, etc. This could be a time-consuming task if many more clean versions exist after the last infected version.

REFERENCES

Search "archiving" from the SSAdmin online help for more information regarding the Archive utility.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:7/1/2004
Keywords:kbhowto kbSSExplorer KB201378
©2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.