SCSP 5.2 RU9 MP2 or prior IPS policy will not apply to a 5.2 RU9 MP3 Windows (XP, 2003) Agent

Products

• Critical System Protection

Issue/Introduction

 

If you apply IPS policy from SCSP 5.2 RU9 MP2 or earlier version to a 5.2 RU9 MP3 Windows (XP, 2003) agent, it will fail to apply with the following error:

In sym_win_prot_exchange_bcd; file <map rset="writeable_rs">: Variable not found: %appdata%

5.2 RU9 MP3 IPS policies will apply successfully to a 5.2 RU9 MP3 agent (fresh install or upgraded). A possible scenario where you may run into this policy application error is when you upgrade your existing SCSP agent to 5.2 RU9 MP3 without first updating IPS policies to 5.2 RU9 MP3 version. After the agent upgrade, if you reapply the policy it will fail.
 

 

Resolution

Recommendation is to update the existing policies to 5.2 RU9 MP3. 

 

As a workaround with older IPS policies, you can resolve the error by updating the following file at the 5.2 RU9 MP3 Agent:
Edit the %AGENT_INSTALL_DIR%\IPS\bin\shortcuts.txt to add the follow entry:
appdata=%%-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\shell folders\\Common AppData%%

Applies To

Affected operating systems: Windows XP 32 bit, Windows Server 2003 (32 and 64 bit), Windows Server 2003 R2 (32 and 64 bit)

Affected Symantec Critical System Protection versions: Release 5.2 RU9 MP3

Affected Symantec Critical System Protection policy: IPS Policies from Release 5.2.9 MP2 and earlier