### File infected by an unknown strain of CDEF



the report:

unknown strain is detected, Disinfectant places the following message in

repair other strains which may exist but have not yet been reported. If an

In addition to the known strain of CDEF, Disinfectant will also detect and



version.

the INIT and the application recognize both the original virus and the new

The Disinfectant version 3.0 INIT fixes this problem. In version 3.0, both

the Disinfectant version 2.9 protection INIT (but not by the application).

the original virus. Unfortunately, the new version escaped detection by

There are only minor technical differences between the new version and

A new version of the CDEF virus was discovered in February, 1993.



you try to repair using MultiFinder, you will get an error message.

files are always “busy,” and Disinfectant is not able to repair them. If

must use Finder instead of MultiFinder. Under MultiFinder, the Desktop

When using Disinfectant to repair CDEF infections under System 6, you



for concern.

other tool. Any CDEF resource in a Finder Desktop file, however, is cause

you should not become alarmed if you see them with ResEdit or some

CDEF resources are a normal part of the Macintosh operating system, so

The CDEF virus is named after the type of resource it uses to infect files.



rebuilding the desktop. See the “Problem Clinic” section for details.

As with the WDEF virus, you can remove a CDEF infection from a disk by



reports of problems on CDEF-infected systems.

viruses, however, the CDEF virus is still dangerous. We have had many

The virus does not intentionally try to do any damage. As with all



virus, it is not a simple clone of WDEF. It is a completely different virus.

Although the behavior of the CDEF virus is similar to that of the WDEF



Fortunately, System 7 is completely immune to the CDEF virus.



rapidly.

document files, or other system files. It spreads from disk to disk very

“Desktop” files used by the Finder. It does not infect applications,

CDEF is very similar to the WDEF virus. It only infects the invisible



quite widespread.

virus. See the description of the MDEF virus for details. The CDEF virus is

1990. The same person who wrote the MDEF virus also wrote the CDEF

The CDEF virus was first discovered in Ithaca, New York, in August,




xThe CDEF Virus