The 640 MEG Shareware Studio 2/The 640 Meg Shareware Studio CD-ROM Volume II (Data Express)(1993).ISO/pascal/vsafe5_6.zip/VSAFE.DOC

Text File | 1990-12-22 | 14KB | 304 lines

      VSAFE.DOC                                           12/21/90

      Howdy:

      The little utility program that you have here was developed as
      a cure for many types of virus programs that replicate inside
      of a system by attaching themselves to executable programs in
      a manner that does not render the program unusable. VSAFE and
      VP will protect any v5.0 Turbo Pascal program by storing data
      about the file INSIDE of the program, and actually checking
      that this data is still valid every time the program is run.

      Versions for v5.5 and 6.0 of Turbo Pascal will be available
      very soon, check where you found this file, or on my BBS for
      these versions and also for upgrades.

      The tests are made at locations that a virus has to use when
      it infects a file, and cannot be hidden from VSAFE! Once an
      .EXE file is thus protected, it will not run after infection
      until the program is replaced on the disk. VSAFE will even
      work with most programs that have been compressed with the
      new LZEXE/PKLITE utilities! I mention this, because I have
      just seen programs that were compressed by PKLITE which ran
      fine and caused no CRC errors at runtime - but were infected
      with the Jerusalem-B virus INSIDE AND OUT!

      VSAFE will only work in its present form with programs that
      are compiled under Turbo Pascal versions 5.00 thru 6.00 but
      can be modified to work with all versions of Turbo Pascal.

      TO USE VSAFE:

      Using the VSAFE protection is very simple. Just place the
      VSAFE.TPU file in your UNITS directory, and add its name to
      a USES statement in any part of your program. That is all
      you need to do to add VSAFE to your program! NO other mods
      to your code are necessary!

      Next, just compile your program! That is all there is to it
      for this part of the installation process. To test that VSAFE
      has properly compiled, you should just run your program! You
      will observe a very short delay as VSAFE tests your code, and
      then you will see a message that tells you that the program
      has been damaged. If this happens, VSAFE is working!

      The reason you are seeing that message is because VSAFE has
      tested the program out and the values it is getting are the
      defaults installed by me when I compiled the unit.

      To complete your VSAFE installation you just need to run the
      VP program that you have here in the VSAFE.ZIP archive.

      NORMAL OPERATION:

      To run VP just type: VP [filespec]

      Where [filespec] is the COMPLETE path and name of the program
      you wish to protect.

      Example: VP C:\TURBO\EXECS\MYPROG.EXE

      That is all you need to do for some very strong protection
      against most all types of virus infection AND hacking! It is
      good to know that you can safely distribute software that
      cannot be blamed for causing an infection OR easily have its
      code disassembled and then easily recompiled by another!

      USE WITH LZEXE/PKLITE:

      To use VSAFE with a program that is to be compressed with
      either PKLITE or LZEXE is a slightly different process.
      First compile your program as above, and them compress it
      with your choice of either LZEXE or PKLITE.

      Next, run VP with the 'CMP' option as follows: VP [filespec] CMP

      Where [filespec] is the COMPLETE path and name of the program
      you wish to protect THAT HAS JUST BEEN COMPRESSED, and CMP is
      a switch to tell VP that it will be processing a program that
      is to be compressed.

      Example: VP C:\TURBO\EXECS\MYPROG.EXE CMP

      VP will then create a small temporary file in the drive it was
      run from, and store what it needs to know about the compressed
      program.

      After this process is complete, you will have to re-compile
      your program, and then run VP again WITHOUT any command line
      parameters. VP will read the temporary file, and then make
      the necessary adjustments to your program.

      Finally, re-compress your program with your utility, and test
      it by running the program. If the process was successful, you
      will not get the 'integrity compromised' message that VSAFE
      generates for an infected or damaged file.

      ***

      This version of VSAFE will only test parts of the program that
      a virus has to move to successfully infect the file. It also
      tests the DOS reported filesize to see if it has changed, but
      no tests are made other than that. To see this, you can take a
      copy of a protected file and modify a byte with a sector editor
      like NORTON in the area about 500-512 bytes into the file. This
      should still allow your program to at least execute, and VSAFE
      will reject and terminate the program. You can also play with
      the data near the top of the file to see if VSAFE catches the
      modifications. The number 512 is important as that is the size
      of the blocks at the beginning and end of the file that VSAFE
      checks for tampering. This does not seem like very much, but
      it is more than enough when you consider that in order for a
      virus to infect your program it needs to insert something at
      the beginning of the program! And even if a virus were to do
      something nasty like install itself as an internal overlay,
      it still must modify this area if the infected program is to
      run when executed. Some of the virus programs attach code at
      the end of the file, but this gets tested too!

      In order for a virus to be able to avoid detection by VSAFE
      it would be necessary for it to disassemble most of the file
      it was trying to infect, and then insert itself someplace
      after modifying jumps and calls throughout the program! If I
      ever meet a virus that can do that, I will take up another
      line of work!

      I won't be a fool and say it is impossible, but it would be an
      awful lot of work to create a program that could do that to any
      executable program, yet remain fast enough and small enough to
      not raise immediate suspicion.

      ABOUT VSAFE:

      I wrote these programs to help solve a problem. I saw some
      good people get badly screwed by infections of several .EXE
      attacking viruses. It really bothered me to see these people
      put in that position they because some little jerk-dirtbags
      decided to have some nasty fun with their skills, so I sat
      down and spent a few minutes to combat them.

      This version of VSAFE is fully capable of offering most all
      Turbo Pascal programmers a very powerful measure of security
      for their own programs. I hope it makes a dent in the mess!

      Although not in a position to be an industry standard like
      John McAfee and his FANTASTIC series of computer security
      products, I would like to do something to help. VSAFE is my
      first public effort. I have some other versions that I am
      now testing that are capable of providing this level of
      protection for ALL executable programs, including those
      not compiled with Turbo Pascal. If the interest in VSAFE
      is encouraging enough, I will continue to expand on this.

      The version of VSAFE you have here has a fixed sampling
      window size, and the messages are also fixed to a few
      lines of copyright data, and some words about what VSAFE
      is doing.

      See the last section of this hastily typed document file
      for details on how to get the extended version of this
      program, and also on how to license it commercially.

      DISCLAIMER AND CONDITIONS OF USE:   { I hate this part!}

      In this version, VSAFE is provided as an evaluation copy.
      You may copy this file and give it to as many others as
      you wish. I require that you distribute ALL of the files
      AS-IS in the state that you received them in from the
      distribution .ZIP file that was released. You may also
      transport them to any archive format that suits you as
      long as ALL of the files in the original distribution
      archive are included.

      If you are planning to distribute VSAFE in any public or
      private system that charges for access to its files, you
      MUST contact me for permission! I do EXEMPT services that
      normally charge for general access from this restriction
      as long as no extra fee is charged for any access to the
      VSAFE files.

      The VSAFE distribution files, or any part of them MAY NOT
      be placed on any type of electronic bulletin board or data
      retrieval system that claims to own a copyright to all of
      the files that are posted unless this author is contacted
      for permission.

      VSAFE MAY be used by any individual to protect any or all
      of his own personal Turbo Pascal programs, and any free-
      ware author may contact this author for permission to use
      VSAFE protection in his distributed programs.

      VSAFE MAY NOT be used in any business, corporate, agency,
      government, or institution environment without the written
      permission of this author. VSAFE must also NOT be used as
      protection for any software or firmware product that is to
      be distributed for profit by anyone without permission and
      agreement as is detailed below.

      If you use VSAFE, you are agreeing that the author will be
      held blameless for any and all damages that occur as any
      result of including the VSAFE protection in your programs.

      What this means is that if you choose to use VSAFE as it is
      packaged in this distribution file, I am not responsible if
      VSAFE fails to detect a virus, or malfunctions and sets a
      fire in your house or business. I am also not responsible
      if your VSAFE'd wordprocessor decides to kick the bucket
      in the middle of your newspapers day! I am also not to be
      considered responsible for any versions of VSAFE that are
      modified from those in this original distribution archive
      file!

      If there is any type of problem with your use of VSAFE
      please contact me as soon as you can, and I will work
      with you to solve it. I will only give limited support to
      users of this evaluation release, and the quickest help
      for it will come from my BBS. By the way, VP, the VSAFE
      installation utility will prompt you for a password when
      you run it. This is for security purposes, and also to
      prevent anyone but you from running VP and perhaps even
      VSAFE'ing an INFECTED file without you knowing it!

      The Password is: suMSdos

      This password is intentionally a three-finger-salute for
      one particular virus! The password IS case sensitive too!

      Remember the password! VP will not be able to complete the
      protection without it!

      ***

      IN CONCLUSION: { finally! }

      If you made use of this program, and were able to benefit
      from it, I would really appreciate it if you were to send
      me something to acknowledge it. If you are a student, or
      hobbyist, a simple postcard would be nice! If you REALLY
      like this program, a monetary donation of what you feel
      this type of protection is worth would really serve to
      motivate me towards more efforts in this area.

      If you are using VSAFE in an environment that makes use
      of VSAFE to protect profits or income of any type, this
      contribution is mandatory, and you must not use VSAFE
      without contacting me.

      In any case, I hope VSAFE helps you, and please enjoy!

      ***

      ORDERING VSAFE SOFTWARE AND CONTACTING THE AUTHOR:

      If you have not already done so, please read the 'CONDITIONS
      OF USE' section above.

   >  To register VSAFE in the form that it is in this SHAREWARE
      archive beyond the conditions set above without actually
      distributing the VP and VSAFEx.TPU files the cost is $15.
      This allows you to do what you wish with this set of VSAFE
      programs, and entitles you to full support.

   >  VSAFE EXTENDED offers a truly friendly user interface and
      fully configurable options for the sampling window and your
      messages. Password protection for the executable file is an
      option too. With the new extended versions, serial number
      generation and embedding for both the disk and program are
      available.

      VSAFE EXTENDED is available for: $50.00 per copy for in-house
      use, or $500 for unlimited organization use which includes the
      UNLIMITED rights to distribute VSAFE protected programs, but
      NOT the VP installation module. ALL VSAFE protected programs
      MUST be compiled and VSAFE protected in house.

      The Turbo Pascal source code for all versions of VSAFE and the
      VP installation utility is available. Contact the author for
      details.

      If you have any other ideas on what you would like to do with
      any version of VSAFE, and don't like these ideas, please feel
      free to contact the author for discussion.

      ***

      To contact the author write to:

      Daniel J. Karnes
      105 SpitBrook rd. #3E
      Nashua, NH. 03062

      (603)-888-9607

      Or call The Cutting Edge BBS (603)-888-9607 - 300-2400 bps. 24 hrs.

      All payments and donations should be made via check or money order.
      After all, I have to account to uncle sam too!

      Whatever, please enjoy!



                                               Daniel J. Karnes 12/21/90