acad.lsp file presenting as virus in autocad electrical 2019

[tlachacd]

Recently my IT department contacted me that files were being flagged on our network in the virus system.  they traced it down to the ACAD.lsp files that had been generated automatically in every project only since I updated to Electrical 2019.  Do we know if something changed in the latest to cause this?  Is there a solution I can present to them.  I've read back and it appears this is a common problem sometimes associated with an actual virus but I cannot pin down a final solution. I have attached a screenshot of the scan results.

I tried to add this to the autocad electrical forum but it would not let me as I could not fill in the "Forum Board"

[Ed__Jobe · Accepted solution]

There's no case that I know of that generates lisp files automatically. AutoCAD Electrical doesn't even ship with an acad.lsp file. That's something that normally created by the user as-needed. If its an actual lisp file, you should be able to open acad.lsp in Notepad and it should contain lisp code. It looks like your virus scanner has found a lisp file that contains a virus. AutoCAD isn't replicating the file, the virus is. Here is McAffee's info on the virus.

[tlachacd]

Thank you for the info.  I've been seeing this file for so long now I am used to it.  I am surprised our scanners just recently started noticing.

[dgorsman]

Aside from replicating, it's usually harmless in nature.  You'll need to scrub both the network and individual computers for rogue files (typically, ACAD.LSP and/or ACAD.VLX).  Don't skip anyone as the problem will be back again.

If you have a global ACAD.LSP file that you're sharing between users, check that for contamination by rogue code.  If you aren't already doing so, locate a clean version in a read-only network folder.  If you don't use this file create a blank one and do the same thing, and point everyone's support file search path to find that folder first.  As the virus attempts to modify the file it will fail because it doesn't have rights.