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Text File | 1993-04-04 | 67KB | 1,373 lines

========================================================================= || From the files of The Hack Squad: || by Lee Jackson, Co-Moderator, || FidoNet International Echo SHAREWRE The Hack Report || Volume 2, Number 4 for April, 1993 || Report Date: April 4, 1993 || ========================================================================= Welcome to the fourth 1993 issue of The Hack Report. This is a series of reports that aim to help all users of files found on BBSs avoid fraudulent programs, and is presented as a free public service by the FidoNet International Shareware Echo and the author of the report, Lee Jackson (FidoNet 1:382/95). This month's issue was delayed a bit, due to some severe weather in the area of Hack Central Station. However, and I hope you'll agree with me, the wait was worth it: more ARJ hacks have appeared, seemingly in anticipation of a new release of the popular archiver, and the Power Pump is sighted once again. Also, in what seems to be a never-ending attack against a well-known program, someone has released yet another tampered archive of TheDraw. Thanks to everyone who has helped put this report together, and to those that have sent in comments and suggestions. NOTE TO SYSOPS: The Hack Report may be freely posted as a bulletin on your BBS, subject to these conditions: 1) the latest version is used, 2) it is posted in its entirety, and 3) it is not altered in any way. NOTE TO OTHER READERS: The Hack Report (file version) may be freely uploaded to any BBS, subject to the above conditions, and only if you do not change the filename. You may convert the archive type as you wish, but please leave the filename in its original HACK????.* format. The Hack Report may also be cross-posted in other networks (with the permission of the other network) as long as it meets the above conditions and you give appropriate credit to the FidoNet International Shareware Echo (and the author <g>). The idea is to make this information available freely. However, please don't cut out the disclaimers and other information if you use it, or confuse the issue by spreading the file under different names. Thanks! DISCLAIMER: The listings of Official Versions are not a guarantee of the files' safety or fitness for use. Someone out there might just be sick-minded enough to upload a Trojan with an "official" file name, so >scan everything you download<!!! The author of this report will not be responsible for any damage to any system caused by the programs listed as Official Versions, or by anything using the name of an Official Version. | In addition, the releases listed as the latest Official Versions may not | be entirely accurate. However, they do reflect the latest version known | to the author of The Hack Report at the time of writing. That's the | nature of the beast we call shareware: authors have every right (and in | this writer's opinion, are well advised) to release a new version without | advance notice of any kind. If you see a version newer than one listed | here, please contact one of The HackWatchers or myself so that we can | keep these listings up to date. ************************************************************************* Hacked Programs | Here are the latest known versions of some programs known to have hacked | copies floating around. Archive names are listed when known, along with | the person who reported the fraud (thanks from us all!). Program Hack(s) Latest Official Version ======= ======= ======================= | ARJ Archiver ARJ250 ARJ239D Reported By: Tommy Vielkanowitz(1:151/2305) | ARJ239E | Reported By: The Hack Squad ARJ240A Reported By: Ryan Shaw (1:152/38) Blue Wave Offline BWAVE_3 BWAVE212 Mail Reader Reported By: HW Scott Raymond BNU FOSSIL Driver BNU202 BNU170 Reported By: Amauty Lambrecht (2:291/712) (not counting betas) BNU188B Reported By: David Nugent (3:632/348), Author of BNU DMS Amiga Disk DMS version 1.12 DMS version 1.11 Masher Reported By: Ben Filips, via Jay Ruyle (1:377/31) F-Prot Virus Scanner FP-205B FP-207 Reported By: HW Bill Lambdin LhA Amiga Archiver LHA148E LHA138E (Shareware) Reported By: Michael Arends (1:343/54) LHA v1.50r (Regist.) LHA151 Reported By: Lawrence Chen (1:134/3002) MusicPlay MPLAY31 MPLAY25B Reported By: Lee Madajczyk (1:280/5) PKLite PKLTE201 PKL115 Reported By: Wen-Chung Wu (1:102/342) PKZip PKZ301 PKZ204G Reported By: Mark Dudley (1:3612/601) Jon Grimes (1:104/332) Shez SHEZ72A SHEZ89 SHEZ73 Reported By: HW Bill Lambdin | Telemate TM40C TM400-1 through 4 | Reported By: Philip Dynes, RIME Telemate | conference, via HW Richard | Steiner | TM410-1 | Reported By: Bat Lang (1:382/91) | Telix Telix v3.20 TLX321-1 | (Prior to Dec. 1992) TLX321-2 | Telix v3.25 TLX321-3 | Reported By: Brian C. Blad (1:114/107) TLX321-4 Peter Kirn (WildNet, via HW Ken Whiton) Telix v4.00 Telix v4.15 Reported By: Barry Bryan (1:370/70) Telix v4.25 Reported By: Daniel Zuck (2:247/30, via Chris Lueders (2:241/5306.1) MegaTelix Verified By: Jeff Woods, deltaComm, Inc. Telix Pro Reported By: Jason Engebretson (1:114/36), in the FidoNet TELIX echo Wolfenstein-3D WOLF2-1 #1WOLF14 WOLF2-2 Reported By: Wen-Chung Wu (1:102/342) ========================================================================= Hoax Alert: | Recently, an archive of Frisk's (a.k.a. Fridrik Skulason's) F-Prot Virus | Scanner v2.07 has been distributed with a "registration form" from a | company called JLT. According to Frisk, this is not legitimate. He says | that JLT contacted him in the fall of 1992, asking if they could | distribute F-Prot, collect registration fees, and forward 50% of the fees | to him. Frisk didn't want them to do this, but it appears that an | archive with the "registration form" may have slipped into distribution. | In Frisk's words, "...this version is most certainly not something that I | want distributed." From the "Not Really A Program, but Interesting Anyway" department, a "press release" has entered distribution, claiming that PKWare Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The letter is dated Friday, February 26, 1993, and supposedly quotes Mark Gresbach of PKWare in the statement. However, in a message posted in the CompuServe PKWARE forum on March 1, 1993, PKWare employee Douglas Hay states that this is not true. Douglas also points out that the perpetrator of the hoax misspelled the word Milwaukee (as 'Milwaukie'), and that one of the three phone numbers in the message for PKWare is wrong. In short, ignore the letter - PKWare has _not_ filed bankruptcy. Other previously reported hoaxes: Filename Claimed use/Actual activity/Reporter(s) ============ ========================================================== PKZ305 Hacked "new version" of PKZip. However, a message in wide circulation claimed this was infected with a virus called PROTO-T. This message is the actual hoax: there may be one or more PROTO-T viruses around now, but none do what was claimed in the hoax message. This hack, PKZ305, was not infected with any virus, nor did it contain Trojan code, per testing by Bill Logan (1:300/22), HW Jeff White, and HW Bill Lambdin. RAOPT "Optimizes" your RemoteAccess BBS files and claims to be from Continental Software. Actually does nothing but read your USERS.BBS file and report the number of users. The program is _not_ from Continental Software, according to Andrew Milner. Reported by Kai Sundren (2:201/150), via HW Mikael Winterkvist. SCORCHV2 Claims to be v2.0 of the game Scorched Earth: this version doesn't yet exist. Actually a renamed archive of version 1.2. Reported by Brian Dhatt (1:3648/2.5). ========================================================================= The Trojan Wars The usual "multitude" of Trojans that usually pass through the gates here at Hack Central Station was a bit smaller than some months. However, the ones that did come through were enough to make life interesting. So, grab some loaves and fishes, just in case, and read on. | Ryan Tucker (1:290/10) forwards a message from a fellow SysOp, Robert | Pedersen, about ASM2PAS. This claims to create Pascal source code from | an .EXE file. However, from text inside the executable, it appears that | this program tries to delete your DOS directory. It also brags about a | certain anti-viral scanner not being able to detect it. | | Valid point, that: practically _no_ anti-viral tools detect Trojans, | with the exception of Frisk's F-Prot and one or two others. Even then, | the Trojan detection is not complete. Your best protection against | Trojans is a religiously maintained set of backups, preferably done after | a check for viruses on your hard drive(s). | HW Richard Steiner forwarded a message from the America OnLine GEOWORKS | forum about the file GEOCOMM. The message, from "GW Steve" (a "GeoRep", | according to Richard), came from a user of GeoComm named J. S. James, and | warned that this archive contains a hacked version of the original | GeoComm program. The file claims to be an "update," but it seems to be a | Trojan which will damage your File Allocation Table (FAT). Not a file to | be kept around, it would seem. | HW Bill Lambdin reports on LAW22 (no description), which contains the | following files: | | Length Date Time CRC-32 Attr Name | ------ ---- ---- -------- ---- ---- | 22911 02-24-93 14:13 a4b84cc7 --w- ABOUT.COM | 13422 02-24-93 14:44 8f0d1e96 --w- INFO.EXE | 126 02-24-93 14:50 68c9463a --w- DESC.SDI | ------ ------- | 36459 3 | | Bill says that ABOUT.COM contains a virus. Scan 102 labels it as BA101, | which is a 160 byte-long .COM file infector. This could be an isolated | incident of an infected legitimate file, so thoroughly check any such | file you find that has the above files in it before you kill it. | Another report from Mr. Lambdin concerns a file that a user in the | Intelec PC-Security conference sent to him, called PCS204 (PC-Sentry | v2.04). Bill's tests show that this copy of the archive contains two | files, INSTALSW.COM and EVERYDAY.COM, that are infected with a | non-resident "companion" virus that utilizes the Mutation Engine. It | also contains the file PCS.EXE, which is infected with a virus created by | a virus-writing group's "Mass Produce Code Generator." | Bill also reports that our old friend, the Power Pump virus, has | resurfaced inside a file called FX2. Here's the archive info: | | Length Date Time CRC-32 Attr Name | ------ ---- ---- -------- ---- ---- | 25846 01-01-92 00:00 2635e28a --w- FX2.EXE | 1199 01-01-92 00:00 f61885bd --w- FX2.COM | 17354 01-01-92 00:00 02eac55c --w- POWER.EXE | 1007 01-01-92 00:00 139e1291 --w- FX2.DOC | ------ ------- | 45406 4 | | The giveaway here is the file POWER.EXE. For a full documentation of the | Power Pump virus, please see the 1992 Full Archive Edition of The Hack | Report (filename HACK92FA), available from most official distribution | sites. | Travis Griggs (1:3807/8) forwarded a report from a local board called The | Forum (phone number 1-318-528-2107) by a user named Susan Pilgreen. The | message referred to a file called BOUNCE, which she said was infected | with the Beeper (Russian Mirror) virus. The file, according to Travis, | claimed to be a game. Travis has now forwarded the file information on | this archive: | | Filename Original DateTime modified CRC-32 Attr BTPMGVX | ------------ ---------- ----------------- -------- ---------- | BOUNCE.COM 4053 80-01-01 00:02:04 35C562AF A--W B 1 | BOUNCE.DAT 119101 92-11-20 23:16:10 247712A8 A--W B 0 | BOUNCE.DOC 348 92-11-20 23:21:46 B28557FE A--W B 1 | ------------ ---------- | 3 files 123502 | Geoffrey Liu (1:229/15) reports in the FidoNet WARNINGS echo on a file | called BWE. This claims to provide a "quick and easy way to exit | Windows." Geoffrey forwards this file info and disassembly report from | John Eady (1:229/15, john.eady@canrem.com): | | Name Length Mod Date Time CRC | ============ ======== ========= ======== ======== | LICENSE.TXT 2656 14 Feb 93 22:01:14 46B50814 | ORDER.TXT 2335 12 Feb 93 12:00:18 9D1A705E | README.TXT 3565 14 Feb 93 23:08:08 3EA7548E | BWE.EXE 19517 14 Feb 93 23:02:34 F1729CA4 | ============ ======== ========= ======== ======== | *total 4 28073 14 Feb 93 23:08:08 | | "After debugging part of the virus, the following text appears (encrypted) | in the infected program: | | It's time for a math test curtesy of YAM! | | And the question is... | | What is 00 + 00 = | | WRONG!!!! TRY AGAIN! | | Admiral Bailey | | "This virus is self-encrypting, but does not use any stealth techniques | (as far as I've seen). It doesn't appear to infect the boot record, or | the boot partition record. It does not appear to infect .SYS files, or | .OV? files. | | "If you feel you have been infected, examine any EXE or COM files that you | believe are infected. Check the 4th and 5th bytes in a COM file for the | characters "BA". Check the 12th and 13th bytes in a EXE file for the | characters "BA". If you find a file like this, chances are you have been | infected." | Michael Toth (1:115/439.7) has received a report from a local SysOp, Matt | Glosson of Audio Adrenalin, of a copy of TheDraw v4.60 (filename | TDRAW460) that was uploaded to him with a few "modifications." The file | contained a "ZIP Comment" that had an ANSI bomb embedded in it, and also | had a file called UFO!.COM inside the archive which would perform an | unconditional format on your hard drive. (Editorial - for Ian Davis' | sake, I wish folks would leave TheDraw alone for a while. No one program | or programmer deserves this much abuse. - lj) | Mike Wenthold (1:271/47) found a program under the filename GS2000 which | contained the VCL 3 [Con] Virus. The archive contains the following | files: | | Length Date Time CRC Filename | ======== ========= ====== ======== ============ | 1984 22-Dec-91 01:40p 3527B16B GS2000.COM | 543 22-Dec-91 01:58p DB83A2C0 GSUNP.DOC | ======== ========= ====== ======== ============ | 2527 2 files. | | The compression method (on this ZIP archive) was not included in his | data. According to Dave Lartique (1:3800/22) and Chris Gramer | (1:271/47), the program is an "unprotect" for MicroProse's game Gunship | 2000. This appears to be another isolated incident of an infected | legitimate file. William Gordon (1:369/104) reports BEV105, a file that claims to be a "Beverly Hills 90210 Adventure Game." This file contains 8 files, but two seem to be the real culprits: DORINFO.DIR and INSTALL.COM. The installation renames the DORINFO.DIR file to IDCKILL.EXE and invokes it. This program asks for some sort of wildcard according to William, then proceeds to delete everything on your drive that matches that wildcard. However, it doesn't stop there: it continues on and deletes all .bat, .fon, .com, .zip, .sys, .ice, .ans, .arj, and .exe files. William also says the file "comes with the following virii: Bootkill and Genesis." A copy of this file was sent to Mr. White and Mr. Logan, who were able to confirm the behaviour that William reported. For the complete results of their test, see the file BEV105.RES in the FILETSTS.LZH archive, included in the archive version of The Hack Report. More from HW Bill Lambdin: he forwards a message from Terry Goodman in the U'NI Net virus conference concerning the file SCOMP. This was advertised as a compression utility with better compression than PKZip. The file passes all virus checkers unless you also check data files in addition to executables. In short, the executable loads a file called SCOMP.DAT, which it uses to create a file called CASPER.COM, which is apparently the Casper virus. Another report from Bill concerns a file he located called TAXTIP93. This archive contains a file called TAXTIP93.DAT, which the executable file, TAXTIPS.EXE, renames to MOUSE.COM and tries to copy to your DOS and WINDOWS directory. The new MOUSE.COM is infected with the ADA virus. Brian Chan (Internet, chanav@sfu.ca) found a file called PASSPRO, which was described with a very short line ("'Password,' or some other short word," according to Brian). The archive contained these files: PASS .PA1 PASS .PA2 PASS .PA3 PASSWORD.COM Brian looked inside the .com file, which he says looks like a compiled batch file, and found these strings/commands: Please Wait While Loading; It may take in between 30seconds to 5 minutes To unshrink nessessary files Please Turn off Screen, and wait for the beep. If You do not, your screen might not function the way it should. Turn Off Screen now, and press the space bar. /C REN pass.pa1 pa.exe pass.pa2 /C DEL c:\*.* pass.pa2 /C DEL c:\dos\*.* /C REN pa.exe pass.pa1 pass.pa3 FORMAT c: /C CLS As you can see, PASS.PA1 gets renamed to PA.EXE - the file, compressed with PKLite, is actually Microsoft's MS-DOS ATTRIB.EXE program. PASS.PA2 contains the single letter 'Y', and PASS.PA3 contains the single word 'Yes'. From the looks of things, this turns out to be a multipartite Trojan that attempts to format (what else?) your hard drive. Another multipartite Trojan was spotted by James Frazee (1:343/58), under the filename ADD_IT. It contains these files: Name of File Size Date ADD_IT.ARJ 40888 02-11-93 ======================================= ADDIT1 DAT 34283 07-20-91 2:13a ADD_IT ANS 646 02-11-93 8:31p ADDIT2 DAT 20634 04-09-91 5:00a ADDIT DOC 177 02-11-93 7:28p ADDIT COM 1391 02-11-93 8:14p ADDIT3 DAT 138 02-11-93 8:13p THEDRAW PCK 650 02-11-93 8:31p When run, ADDIT.COM merges the three .DAT files into an .EXE file. The end result was that the program deleted all of the files in the directory in which it was run. Matt Hargett (1:2430/1532) found a file called DRSLEEP which he says has a "cheap virii (sic) in it," but actually appears to be a Trojan. When the executable, DRSLEEP.EXE is run, it deletes your COMMAND.COM file. Not much to write home about, but nasty enough. Thanks, Matt. Brent Thomas (1:202/226) says in the FidoNet DIRTY_DOZEN echo that his system was "taken down" by a file called DRAGON. It claimed to be a Public Domain VGA and Sound Blaster supported game. No symptoms were reported, except that he had to reformat his hard drive. Josh Burke (1:138/174) reports, via Charlie Sheridan (1:356/18), Travis Griggs (1:3807/8), and HW Bob Seaborn, a problem with the file PHYLOX2. In what might be an isolated incident, Josh says the file claimed to be a "really cool game, VGA gfx and SB sound." However, the INSTALL program destroys hard disks. | Bob Seaborn received a copy of this file and forwarded it to me - I have | in turn forwarded it to Bill Logan and HW Jeff White for testing. Stay | tuned. John Balkunas (1:107/639) forwards information on GIFCHECK. He reports that Lance Merlen (1:107/614) received an upload of this file, which, when checked with McAfee's ViruScan v100, reported over 5 viruses in the files in the archive. No internal archive data was provided, so it is hard to say whether or not this is an isolated incident. | Zack Jones (formerly 1:387/641: new address not yet known) reports a file called GAGS which was seen in the San Antonio area. The file, described as "Some Christmas practical jokes," was analyzed by Bill Dirks (1: 385/17) and confirmed as a Trojan. The program grabs control of several interrupt vectors, including the critical error handler. The only way to stop it once it starts is to hit the reset button or power down. When invoked, it displays a countdown from 8 to 0, which corresponds to drives H through A, in that order. For each found drive, it overwrites the first 255 sectors with random data from a block of memory. To add insult to injury, if drives B and A are empty, you are prompted to insert disks (so that they can be trashed as well). After this, the Trojan displays the message, including something like, "the disk was trashed but it's only a joke and they are only kidding." It then prompts you to reboot, which is rather hard to do unless you have a bootable "panic disk" floppy on hand - you certainly won't be able to boot from your HD. Bill says that if your HD is smaller than 60 megs, you're better off trying to recover your disk from scratch. Between 60-120 megs, you have a better chance of recovery via disk utilities: over 120 megs, you should be able to accomplish a complete recovery if you're careful and you know what you're doing. Bill posted the following scan string that can be used to detect this Trojan - if your scanner can use external strings, be sure to read the instructions carefully before trying to add this: 9A46027205B003B9FF00BA0000CD26 If your scanner requires a name for the string, Bill suggests using "AlamoXmasTrojan." This Trojan report comes from an article in MacWeek magazine, Volume 7, Number 2, issued January 11, 1993. The article, posted in the FidoNet VIRUS_INFO echo by Robert Cummings, states that a program called CPro 1.41.sea, claiming to be a new version of Compact Pro (a Macintosh shareware compression utility), will reformat any floppy in drive 1 and tries to reformat the user's start-up hard drive when launched. The file can be identified by a 312K sound resource file called "log jingle," which is digitized sound from the Ren and Stimpy cartoons. Frans Hagelaars (2:512/2) has posted a message in several echos concerning a Trojan version of the Blue Wave Offline Mail Reader that had been circulating in his area. According to the warning, the "hacked" version attacks your hard drive boot sector and partition table, and will then "play tricks" with RemoteAccess userlists and phone numbers. The filename of this version was not given in the report, nor was it made clear whether the BBS door or the Reader was involved. If you have any questions about the security of your copy, remember that you can always obtain a safe copy from the BBS of the author, George Hatchew, at FidoNet address 1:2240/176, phone number 1-313-743-8464, or from any of the official distribution sites (which I believe are listed in the documentation for the program). Other previously reported Trojans: Filename Claimed use/Actual activity/Reporter(s) ======== ============================================================== AANSI100 Claims to add Auto-ANSI detect to Telegard BBSs - contains something called the "Malhavoc Trojan," which displays a verse from a Toronto band and attacks files/sectors on drives C: through F:. Reported by HW Todd Clayton and by George Goode (1:229/15). ANSISCR VGA BBS ad - contains a self-extracting archive of the Yankee Doodle and AntiChrist viruses. Can trash hard drives as well through Trojan behaviour. Reported by Bill Dirks (1:385/17), and under the filename RUNME by Stephen Furness (1:163/273). AVENGER Advertised as an "amazing game that supports all kind of sound cards...." Contains 2 internal password-protected .ZIP format files, AVENGER2.DAT and AVENGER3.DAT, which are expanded by the program to the files RUNTIME1.COM (N1 virus) and RUNTIME2.COM (Anthrax virus). From Reinhardt Mueller, via HW Bill Lambdin. BATMAN No claim reported - searches your DOS path and tries to "delete the executable file that loads WildCat BBSs." Reported by James Powell (Intelec PC-Security Conf.), via HW Bill Lambdin. CHROME Possible isolated incident - contains a file, FGDS.COM, which contains text that says "Skism Rythem Stack Virus-808." Reported by Richard Meyers and forwarded by Larry Dingethal (1:273/231). DBSOUND Possible isolated incident - claimed update of the Drum Blaster .MOD file player. Deletes all files in the current directory and all of its subdirectories. From "Khamsin #1 @9168*1", forwarded by HW Ken Whiton and HW Bill Dennison, from Ken Green of the CentraLink BBS. GRAFIX Possible isolated incident - contains the file WAIT.COM, which is a renamed copy of DELDIR.COM, a directory remover and file deletion tool. Reported by Andreas Reinicke (2:284/402). LOGIM613 Possible isolated incident - one internal file, MOUSE.COM, reports as being infected with the VCL virus when checked with McAfee's ViruScan v95. Reported by Mike Wenthold (1:271/47). MUVBACK Claimed keyboard utility - actual ANSI bomb that remaps the D key of your keyboard to invoke DEBUG and create a couple of Trojans from script files. Reported by Bill Dirks. OPTIBBS Aimed at RemoteAccess BBS systems - archives your USERS.BBS list and places it in your download directory. Reported by HW Nemrod Kedem. QOUTES Not a misspelling - claimed Christmas quotation generator. Overwrites the first 128 cylinders of your first HD, requiring a low level format to overcome the damage (IDE drives may need to go back to the factory). Reported by Gary Marden (2:258/27). QSCAN20 Claimed small virus scanner - when run, identifies itself as "being a stealth bomber" and attacks your hard drive's FAT. Reported by Art Mason (1:229/15). RA111TO2 Claims to upgrade RemoteAccess 1.11 to 2.0 - acts similarly to the OPTIBBS file reported above. Reported by Peter Janssens (2:512/1). RAFIX "Fixes little bugs" in RemoteAccess - program contains the string "COMMAND /C FORMAT C:" internally. Reported by Sylvain Simard (1:242/158). RAMANAGE Claimed USERS.BBS manager for RemoteAccess - yet another file that makes an archive of this file (MIX1.ARJ or WISE.ARJ) and places it in a download directory. Reported by Peter Janssens. NOTE - Peter Hoek (2:281/506.15) reports a program that does the same thing, but uses the archive name RUNNING.ARJ to hold the USERS.BBS file. No name of the Trojan was supplied. REAPER ANSI bomb - remaps the keyboard to force file deletion and hard disk formatting - also generates insults. Reported by Victor Padron (1:3609/14), via Rich Veraa (1:135/907). REDFOX Batch file which deletes all DOS and system files. Reported by Mike Wenthold. ROLEX Possible isolated incident of an infection by the Keypress [Key] virus. Reported by David Gibbs, via Michael Toth (1:115/220). SBBSFIX Tries to format drive C: - contains two files, SBBSFIX.EXE and COM_P.OVL. Reported by Clayton Mattatall (1:247/400). SPEED Claims to "check your PC speed" - actually deletes all files on drive C:, including directories. Reported by HW Nemrod Kedem. XYPHR2 No claim - contains the Power Pump companion virus (documented in the 1992 Full Archive of this report). Reported by Mark Histed (1:268/332). YPCBR101 A copy of this file, uploaded to Simtel-20 and the oak mirror on archie.au, contained an infection of the Dark Avenger virus in the file YAPCBR.EXE. Was supposed to be re-released as a clean archive. Reported by John Miezitis (Internet, John.Miezitis@cc.utas.edu.au). ========================================================================= Pirated Commercial Software Program Archive Name(s) Reported By ======= =============== =========== 3-D Pool 3DPOOL Michael Gibbs (via Bill Lambdin) Alone in the Dark ALONEDEM Mark Mistretta (1:102/1314) (full game-not a demo) | ArcMaster (registered) AM91REG HW Scott Raymond | Arctic Fox (game, by AFOX from the Meier/Morlan List, | Electronic Arts) confirmed by Emanuel Levy | (1:266/63) and Brendt Hess | (1:105/362) Atomix (game) ATOMIX_ HW Matt Kracht A-Train by Maxis ATRAIN1 through Chris Blackwell of Maxis ATRAIN6, also (zoinks@netcom.com) A-TRAIN1 through A-TRAIN6 Battle Chess CHESS Ron Mahan (1:123/61) | BeetleJuice (game) BEETLE Mark Harris (1:121/99) | BETLEJUC Jason Robertson (1:250/802.2) BJUICE Alan Hess (1:261/1000) BJ Bill Blakely (RIME Shareware echo) BTLJWC the Hack Squad (1:382/95) | Budokan: the Martial BUDOKAN Michael Gibbs (Intelec, via | Spirit (game) HW Bill Lambdin) Check-It PC CHECKIT HW Bert Bredewoud Diagnostic Software CHKIT20 HW Bill Lambdin | Cisco Heat (game) CISCO Jason Robertson Commander Keen _1KEEN5 Scott Wunsch (1:140/23.1701) (part 5) Copy II PC COPYPC70 Ryan Park (1:283/420) Darkside (game) DARKSIDE Ralph Busch (1:153/9) DiskDupe Pro v4.03 DD403PRO Jan Koopmans (2:512/163) Energizer Bunny Screen ENERGIZR Kurt Jacobson, PC Dynamics, Saver for Windows Inc., via HW Bill Dennison Family Feud (game) FAM-FEUD Harold Stein (1:107/236) F-Prot Professional FP206SF Mikko Hypponen (mikko.hypponen@compart.fi) | GifLite 2.0 (regist.) GL2-ECR HW Scott Raymond Golden Axe (game) GOLDAXE Harold Stein Ian Bothams Cricket IBCTDT Vince Sorensen (1:140/121) | Intelcom Modem Test TESTCOM from the Meier/Morlan List, | Utility (dist. with confirmed by Onno Tesink | Intel modems) (RIME, via HW Richard | Steiner) Killing Cloud (game) CLOUD Mike Wenthold | Kings of the Beach VBALL Jason Robertson (game) Life & Death (game) L&D1 Harold Stein L&D2 MegaMan (game) MEGAMAN Emanuel Levy (1:266/63) | Microsoft Flight FS Michael Gibbs (Intelec, via | Simulator HW Bill Lambdin) Oh No, More Lemmings ONMLEMM Larry Dingethal (1:273/231) (complete-not demo) Over the Net OTNINC1 Tim Sitzler (1:206/2708) (volleyball game) | PKLite (registered) PKL15REG HW Scott Raymond PKZip v2.04c PK204REG HW Scott Raymond (Registered) PKZip v2.04c PKZCFG Mark Mistretta (1:102/1314) Configuration Editor PKZip v2.04e PK204ERG HW Scott Raymond (Registered) PKZip v2.04g PKZ204R HW Bill Dennison (Registered) PrintShop PSHOP Michael Gibbs, Intelec, via HW Bill Lambdin Psion Chess 3D-CHESS Matt Farrenkopf (1:105/376) | Q387 (registered) Q387UTG Michael Toth (1:115/439.7) QModem Pro QMPRO-1 Mark Mistretta QMPRO-2 Rack 'Em (game) RACKEM Ruth Lee (1:106/5352) | Microsoft Ramdrive RAMDRIVE Barry Martin (Intelec, via | HW Bill Lambdin) Sequencer Plus Pro SPPRO Tom Dunavold (Intelec, via Larry Dingethal) Shadow Warriors (game) SHADOWG Mark Mistretta Sharky's 3D Pool POOL Jason Robertson (1:250/801) Shez (Registered) SHEZ84R Eric Vanebrick (2:291/712) SHEZ85R HW Scott Raymond | SHEZ87R | SHEZ88R | SHEZ89R SideKick 2.0 SK3 Harold Stein | SimCity (by Maxis) SIM_CITY Kevin Brott (Internet, | dp03%ccccs.uucp@pdxgate.cs.pdx.edu) SIMCTYSW Scott Wunsch | Smartdrive Disk Cache SMARTDRV Barry Martin (Intelec, via | HW Bill Lambdin) SMTDRV40 Michael Toth (1:115/220) Star Control Vol. 4 STARCON Carson M. Hanrahan (CompuServe 71554,2652) Streets on a Disk STREETS Harvey Woien (1:102/752) Teledisk (files TDISK214 Mark Mistretta dated after Apr. 1991) | TELE214R Staale Fagerland (Internet, | staale.fagerland@euronetis.no) Vegas Casino 2 (game) VEGAS2 The Hack Squad | VPic v6.0 (registered) VPIC60CR HW Scott Raymond WinWay Resume for WINRES Erez Carmel (CompuServe, Windows 70523,2574) World Class Rugby WCRFNTDT Vince Sorensen | ZipMaster (registered) ZM31REG HW Scott Raymond ========================================================================= ?????Questionable Programs????? First, a quick note - this section, along with the Information, Please section, are the only ones that have any information carried over from the 1992 report. This is because many of the listings in these sections were not completely resolved when the last 1992 issue was published. As usual, if anyone has any additional information on anything listed in these sections, _please_ help! | HW Bill Lambdin says he found a file in the Knoxville, Tennessee area | called BIBLEPR (no description available) that appears a bit suspicious. | The file contents are: | | Length Time CRC-32 Attr Name | ------ ---- -------- ---- ---- | 34176 11:26 d267f5de --w- BIBLEPR.COM | 158493 00:04 4298ac2d --w- DATAPR-0.DAT | 158493 00:04 d87adf4b --w- DATAPR-1.DAT | 158493 00:08 1213c6b3 --w- DATAPR-2.DAT | 159764 00:08 38d7cc06 --w- DATAPR-3.DAT | 1572 24:05 3a60c80e --w- BIBLEPR.DOC | ------ ------- | 670991 6 | | When BIBLEPR.COM executes, Bill says it displays the following message: | | Greets from DOA! | | Don't say I didn't warn you! You are also busted! | | Expect a visit from the SPA! | | Omni, I will avenge you! | | Bill's disassembly shows the file contains two INT 26 calls, which are | DOS Absolute Disk Write instructions. He said that if it contains a | virus, he was unable to get it to replicate. A copy of the archive has | been sent to Glenn Jordan at Datawatch Software for testing. | Bud Webster (1:264/165.7) reports an Apogee game being distributed under | the filename BLOCK5.ZIP. He says that the game displayed a message that | said, "This game is not in the public domain or shareware." There was | only an .EXE file in the archive, and no documentation. | | Matthew Waldron (RIME Shareware Conf., via HW Richard Steiner) and Dan | Stratton (via HW Ken Whiton) state that this program was part of an | Apogee disk called the "Super Game Pack," and that it is a game called | "Block Five." Joe Siegler (1:124/9006), the online support | representative for Apogee Software Productions, confirms this, and states | that the majority of the games on this disk, including this one, have | been officially discontinued. No word yet on whether they may be | distributed via BBS systems - watch this space for updates. | Here's an interesting point, brought to my attention by HW Richard | Steiner and John Weiss of the RIME Shareware Conference. In previous | issues, I have listed two files, QM60IST1 and QM60IST2 (reported by | Francois Thunus, 2:270/25), as pirated copies of QModem v6.0. However, | Richard and John quite correctly point out that there was no release of | QModem v6.0 - the program changed to QModem Pro after v5. | | From what Francois reported, I believe that what he saw was indeed Qmodem | Pro, now a commercial-only program. However, it was "released" under the | above filenames. So, is it a Hack? Pirated File? Or what? Doesn't | matter - it shouldn't be distributed. Thanks, Richard and John, for | making me fully engage my brain for a change. <grin> | Jack Cross (1:3805/13) forwarded a copy of a DEBUG script posted in the | FidoNet BATPOWER echo. The script, which has created a great deal of | discussion in that echo, created an archive (LZH) of the program | TinyCache (filename TNYCACHE), a small disk cache program. | | A couple of folks who ran the program state that this is not a legitimate | file. In fact, it appears (from their reported symptoms) to be a Trojan. | Destroyed FATs and reformatted hard drives have been reported after this | program is run. | | I ran the script through DEBUG and un-archived the TNYCACHE.COM file. | Afterwards, I checked it for viruses and looked at it with Vern Buerg's | LIST Enhanced. At first glance, the file doesn't even look like a real | program: it appears to be a corrupted file of some sort, and bears no | resemblance to any .COM file I have ever seen. If it is in fact a | corrupted file, then the damage it could cause if run would be | unpredictable at best. My guess is that the file might not be an | intentional dirty trick, but that the person who distributed it may have | some cross-linked clusters on their hard drive. | | As I have said before to folks who contact Hack Central Station, I'm a | reporter, not an AV expert: my analysis is not as reliable as one coming | from a real expert. I have been offline for several days due to | circumstances beyond my control, so I might have missed a report from | Jack on this. If not, I will forward a copy for testing. HW Bill Dennison captured a message from Marshall Dudley (Data World BBS, (615)966-3574) in the ILink VIRUS FILE conference about the archive ASCDEMO. Marshall says that McAfee's ViruScan doesn't detect any infection until after you run it and it has infected other files. No further information was supplied, other than the internal filenames (ASCDEMO.DOC and ASCDEMO.EXE). I need further data on this before I can list it in the Trojan Wars section, so please advise if you have any. Emanuel Levy (1:266/63) says the file IM, reported by Michael Santos in the Intelec Net Chat conference and listed in the 1992 Full Archive edition of The Hack Report. Michael's report was a "hearsay" report from one of his friends, and stated that the IM screen saver file caused a viral infection. Emanuel says the file is an "outer space screen saver," currently under the filename IM17. Scott Wunsch (1:140/23.1701) says the program name is "Inner Mission," and he currently has version 1.6. In both cases, the files were clean. So, it looks like either Michael's friend's system became infected from a different source than the IM file, or that an isolated incident of an infected IM is involved. No way to tell at this writing. Long time readers of this report will remember a question concerning the status of a screen saver called TUNNEL. Ove Lorentzon (2:203/403.6) and Bill Roark (RIME address BOREALIS, Shareware conference, via HW Richard Steiner) both stated that the program was an internal IBM test program and was not intended for outside distribution. Your Hack Squad has received word from the author of the program, Dan Butterfield (Internet, danielb@vnet.ibm.com), that as far as he is aware, the program has never been released to the general public. According to Dan, "it is still owned by IBM, and as such has been given the IBM security classification 'IBM Internal Use Only' which means what it says: the program is not for distribution to non-IBM employees." Dan also says that several other "Internal Use Only" programs have been "leaked" to the outside world, which implies that these files should not be posted for download. One such program was originally called Dazzle (NOT to be confused with the other popular DAZZLE screensaver), but has entered BBS distribution under the filename O-MY-GOD. Another is a program that is usually included inside other archives: the program name is PLAYANI. Dan says this has been distributed "along with various animations," and also falls under the same Internal classification. A prime example of this is an archive called BALLS (not what you think). This is an animation of multiple chrome spheres rotating around each other above a red and white checkerboard platform. In this case, both the player (PLAYANI) _and_ the animation are the property of IBM and are not intended for BBS distribution. Again, to quote Dan, "None of these programs are for external distribution; all are owned by IBM and are only for use inside IBM by IBM employees." Thanks to Dan for all of his help. Donn Bly has cleared up the question on the status of the Sydex program TeleDisk, first raised by Mark Draconis (1:120/324) and Kelvin Lawson. Donn was kind enough to mail a copy of a letter sent to him by Sydex explaining that Teledisk is no longer shareware. Here is an excerpt from the letter: "Effective April 1991, TeleDisk is no longer a shareware product. After long consideration, we decided to discontinue our offering of the shareware edition of TeleDisk, and license it only as a commercial product. "Commercial licenses of TeleDisk are available from Sydex at $150 a copy. All shareware distributors and BBS sysops who take time to check their sources are requested to remove TeleDisk from shareware distribution." The letter is signed by Miriam St. Clair for Sydex. To summarize, Sydex is no longer accepting shareware registrations for TeleDisk, and asks that it be not be made available for download from BBS systems. Thanks to Donn for his help in this matter. HW Ken Whiton forwards messages from Harold Stein, Gary Rambo, and Gwen Barnes of Mustang Software, Inc., about a "patch" program aimed at OffLine Xpress (OLX) v1.0. The patch is supposed to allow OLX to read and reply to Blue Wave packets, along with a lot of other seemingly unbelievable feats. Gwen Barnes did not seem to know of the patch, but published the following advice in the WildNet SLMROLX conference to anyone considering trying it: 1. Make a complete backup of your system. 2. Make sure you've got all the latest SCAN stuff from McAfee 3. Try it, keeping in mind that it more than likely does nothing at all, or is a trojan that will hose your system. 4. Get ready to re-format and restore from backups if this is in fact the case. No filename was given for this patch. If anyone runs across a copy of it, please contact one of The HackWatchers or myself so that we can forward a copy to MSI for testing. HW Bill Lambdin reports that someone has taken all of McAfee Associates' antiviral programs and combined them into one gigantic (over 700k) archive. He did not say whether the files had been tampered with, but he did send a copy to McAfee for them to dissect. The file was posted under the filename MCAFEE99. I would not suggest downloading this file: as a matter of fact, this reporter prefers to call McAfee's BBS directly when a new version of any of their utilities comes out. I highly recommend this method, since it insures that you will receive an official copy. HW Matt Kracht forwarded a message from Stu Turk in the DR_DEBUG echo about possible Trojans going around as PKZIP 2.21 and/or 2.22. Stu also says that there is a warning about these in circulation. If you have a copy of this warning, please send a copy to Hack Central Station (1:382/95). ========================================================================= Information, Please This the section of The Hack Report, where your Hack Squad asks for _your_ help. Several reports come in every week, and there aren't enough hours in the day (or fingers for the keyboards) to verify them all. Only with help from all of you can The Hack Report stay on top of all of the weirdness going on out there in BBSLand. So, if you have any leads on any of the files shown below, please send it in: operators are standing by. | Eric Alexander (1:3613/10) reported a file called PRINCE that appears to | be a cracked commercial game of some sort. One internal file, | "predit.doc", contained a reference to someone called "The Fang." I am | not familiar with this game, so if anyone comes across Fang's version of | PRINCE, please let me know what they've found. | Dave Lartique (1:3800/22) found a game described as "a shareware game | from Great Britain" called CAVEMAN. This was described on another BBS he | saw it on (under the filename CAVE) as an Apogee game, but it is not an | Apogee release. The game is called Caveman Ninja, and Dave says one of | the internal files contains the following (somewhat garbled) text: | | "DISTRIBUTED BY ELITE SYSTEM LTD (C) 1991 DATA EAST CORPORATION" | | If memory serves, Data East is a producer of commercial games. However, | I have no knowledge of this game. Can someone verify this? Please | advise. | A message from Tony Lim (1:120/314, forwarded by Jack Cross, 1:3805/13) | states that he had a user upload a file called TAG-NFO, which turned out | to be a Trojan. No details about the Trojan were given, so any | confirmation of this would be appreciated. Onno Tesink (2:283/318) has sighted a file called LHA255B. This claims to be version 2.55b of the LHA archiver, with a file date in the executable of 12/08/92. He compared the file to the latest known official release, v2.13, and found two additional program options which were mentioned when the program was invoked with no command line (generating a help screen). The archive contained nothing but the executable file. Viral scans were negative. Many, MANY other folks have seen this file, as well as one called LHA252. Your Hack Squad has copies of both files. The LHA252 file contains Japanese documentation, so it is a bit of a tough nut to crack. I have not heard of any further development going on by the author of LHA, H. Yoshi, but that wouldn't be a first. <g> He is supposedly contactable via the NIFTY-SERVE service of CompuServe. However, this service requires some knowledge of Japanese, and my only foreign language training was a semester of Czech at the University of Texas. If anyone knows of a new version of LHA, or has CompuServe access and the ability to converse in Japanese (and would be willing to assist), please contact your nearest HackWatcher or me and lend a hand. This is getting very frustrating. <grin> HW Bill Lambdin forwards a message from Mario Giordani in the ILink Virus Conference about two files. The archives, called PHOTON and NUKE, are possibly droppers, containing a file called NUKE.COM which "will trash your HD." Pat Finnerty (1:3627/107) sent a reply to the last report of this, stating that he has a copy of a PC Magazine utility called NUKE.COM, which is used to remove subdirectories which contain "nested subs, hidden, read-only (you name it)." He says that the command NUKE C:\ will effectively delete everything on a hard drive, with no chance of repair. This is merely the way the program is designed. I do not know if this is what happened in Mario's case, or if Mario actually found a copy (read: isolated incident) which was infected. Bill has asked Mario for further information, and I would like to echo his call for help. If you know of this, please lend a hand. Ned Allison (1:203/1102) forwarded a report into the FidoNet DIRTY_DOZEN echo from a user of The Mailbox BBS in Cleveland (216/671-7534) named Rich Bongiovanni. Rich reports that there is a file floating around called DEMON WARS (archive name DMNWAR52) that is "infected with a virus." If true, this may be an isolated incident. I would appreciate confirmation on this. Greg Walters (1:270/612) reports a possible isolated incident of a problem with #1KEEN7. When he ran the installation, he began seeing on his monitor "what looked like an X-rated GIF." The file apparently scanned clean. Any information on similar sightings would be appreciated. A report from Todd Clayton (1:259/210) concerns a program called ROBO.EXE, which he says claims to apparently "make RoboBoard run 300% faster." He says he has heard that the program fools around with your File Allocation Table. I have not heard any other reports of this, so I would appreciate some confirmation from someone else who has seen similar reports. Kelvin Lawson (2:258/71) posted a message in the SHAREWRE echo about a possible hack of FEBBS called F192HACK. I have not seen this file, nor has the author of FEBBS, Patrik Sjoberg (2:205/208). He forwards the file sizes in the archive, reported here: Name Length Mod Date Time CRC ============ ======== ========= ======== ======== FEBBS.EXE 220841 09 Mar 92 21:17:00 96D2E08D 014734.TXT 1403 26 Aug 92 01:59:18 3B9F717F ============ ======== ========= ======== ======== *total 2 222244 26 Aug 92 01:59:24 Kelvin says the .TXT file is just an advert for a BBS, so it is "not relevant!". As I said, the author of FEBBS has never seen this file, so I've asked Kelvin to forward a copy of it to him. Andrew Owens (3:690/333.11) forwarded a report of a "Maximus BBS | Optimiser," going under the filenames MAX-XD and MAXXD20. Scott Dudley, the author of Maximus, says he did not write any programs that have these names, but he does not know whether they are or are not legitimate third party utilities. I have requested further information from Andrew on this topic, and would appreciate anyone else's information, if they have any. Yet another short warning comes from David Bell (1:280/315), posted in the FidoNet SHAREWRE echo, about a file called PCPLSTD2. All he says is that it is a Trojan, and that he got his information from another "billboard" and is merely passing it on. Again, please help if you know what is going on here. A message in the FidoNet ASIAN_LINK echo from Choon Hwee (1:3603/263) grabbed my attention the moment I saw it: in capital letters, it said, "DO NOT RUN this file called MODTEXT.EXE, cause it is a TROJAN!!!". He goes on to say that two BBSs have been destroyed by the file. However, that's about all that was reported. I really need more to go on before I can classify this as a Trojan and not just a false alarm (i.e., archive name, what it does, etc.). Please advise. Greg Mills (1:16/390) posted a question to Robert Jung in the ARJ Support Echo (FidoNet) about a version of ARJ called 2.33. It was unclear as to whether or not Mr. Mills had seen the file. Mr. Jung has repeated that the latest version of ARJ is v2.30 (however, there is a legitimate public "pre-release" version numbered 2.39d). It is possible that the references Greg saw about 2.33 were typos, but you never know. Please help your Hack Squad out on this one - if you see it, report it. ========================================================================= The Meier/Morlan List Here are this month's updates on the status of the files contained in the Meier/Morlan List. | Matthew Revelle (1:2608/27) lent a hand on the file WINGIF14, which he | found as WGIF14. The documentation from this file includes the | following: | | "This is a beta release. Please do not distribute | publicly but you can go ahead and give it to WinGIF | users that might need some of these new features. | The real release should be available soon! Please | let me know about bugs as well as what you think of | the new features." | | What we seem to have here is a limited beta that has escaped into | distribution. However, from documentation excerpts sent to me by Michael | Pfister (CompuServe address 100042,102), there has since been a full, | non-beta release of WinGIF v1.4 that is being distributed under the same | filename (WINGIF14). | | This is a confusing situation, to be sure. However, it is simple to | resolve: just look at your documentation. If your copy is a beta | release, go find the new one. Thanks to Matthew and Michael for their | help - WINGIF14 is now off the list. | Several reports came in on NAVM, all indicating that this was the version | of Norton AntiVirus released in 1992 in response to the Michelangelo | virus scare. The reports, from Mark Murphy (1:132/119) and Jerry Murphy | (1:157/2 (no relation, I think)), struck a note of recognition here at | Hack Central Station: thanks to both of you. NAVM comes off the list as | well. Lee Madajczyk (1:280/5) surmises that HARRIER could be Harrier Combat Simulator by Mindscape, Inc. He says that he hasn't seen anything from them in quite a while, and doesn't know if the company is still in business. Here are the remaining unresolved reports from Emanuel Levy (1:266/63): "387DX - sounds like a Math Co-Processor emulator - might be legit "Barkeep sounds like it may be a version of Tapper. If you send beer mugs down the screen to patrons and then have to pick up the returning mugs and they leave tips, then it is Tapper. Or it may be an OLD game published in Compute Mag. If it is the one from Compute only those who have the Compute issue with the game in it are allowed to have a copy. "Harrier is either Harrier Jiump Jet or Space Harrier from Sega wich came out for the Commodore 64 in 89 so I would assume it came out for IBM around then too. "Gremlins- There was an Gremlins Text Adventure and a Video Came for the computer. The video game was put out by Atari Thanks, Emanuel. For those who have missed it before, here is what is left of the list of files forwarded by Joe Morlan (1:125/28), as compiled by Wes Meier, SysOp of the WCBBS (1-510-937-0156) and author of the AUNTIE BBS system. Joe says Wes keeps a bulletin of all rejected files uploaded to him and the reasons they were rejected. Joe also says he cannot confirm or deny the status of any of the files on the list. There are some that I am not familiar with or cannot confirm. These are listed below, along with the description from Wes Meier's list. | Due to the unconfirmed nature of the files below, the filenames are not | included in the HACK????.COL and HACK????.IDX files that are a part of | the archive of The Hack Report. I would appreciate any help that | anyone can offer in verifying the status of these files. Until I receive | verification on them, I will not count them as either hacks or pirated | files. Remember - innocent until proven guilty. My thanks go to Joe and Wes for their help. Filename Reason for Rejection ======== ============================================= BARKEEP Too old, no docs and copyrighted with no copy permission. HARRIER Copyrighted. No permission to copy granted. SLORGAME Copyrighted. No docs. No permission to copy granted. NOVELL Copyrighted material with no permission to BBS distribute DRUMS I have no idea if these are legit or not. No docs. GREMLINS No documantation or permission to copy given. CLOUDKM A hacked commercial program. MENACE Copyrighted. No docs. No permission to copy granted. AIRBALL A hacked commercial program. SNOOPY Copyrighted. No docs. No permission to copy granted. SLORDAX Copyrighted. No docs. No permission to copy granted. ESCAPE Copyrighted. No docs. No permission to copy granted. BANNER Copyrighted. No docs. No permission to copy granted. 387DX Copyrighted. No docs or permission to copy granted. WINDRV Copyrighted. No permission to copy granted. ========================================================================= Clarifications and Thanks | I have received a message from Amit K. Mathur (Internet address | mathur@SERVER.uwindsor.ca), the author of the KILL program reported by | Mark Stansfield (1:115/404). If you will remember, Mark claimed that | this will delete the user's hard drive when run. | | According to Amit, this is possible if the program was accidentally told | to delete the hard drive, since the program is a recursive directory | deletion tool (with "tons of options" and plenty of progress/warning | messages, according to Amit). If you run it from your root directory | with the proper commands, you could very well wind up with a clean hard | drive. | | So, this reporter's advice is to go ahead and use without fear, but use | with care. Thanks for the help, Amit! | Finally, and coming from an angle I never expected, Rick Moen (CompuServe | address 76711,243) points out quite rightly that your Hack Squad has been | a bit biased toward the American version of the English language. | Specifically, he said that my "Maximus BBS Optimiser (sic)" comment was | not correct, especially since the report came from Australia. Seems that | the folks from Oz and most of the rest of the world tend to use an S | instead of a Z to spell the word OPTIMIZER. | | For those who aren't familiar with it, "sic" is used at times by a writer | to point out that the spelling of the previous word might be incorrect, | but it's a direct copy of the original author's spelling. So, thanks to | Rick's sharp eyes, I have removed the "(sic)" comment from that portion | of the report. (FYI, Rick, I _do_ use the correct spelling for words | like "catalogue" and "theatre". <grin>) ========================================================================= Help!!! Would the person who sent the copy of Vegas Casino 2 (filename VEGAS2) to The Hack Squad for testing/verification please re-identify themselves via NetMail? Somehow, your message went to the great Bit Bucket in the sky. Thanks in advance! ************************************************************************* Conclusion If you see one of these on a board near you, it would be a very friendly gesture to let the SysOp know. Remember, they can get in just as much trouble as the fiend who uploads pirated files, so help them out if you can. ***HACK SQUAD POLICY*** The intent of this report is to help SysOps and Users to identify fraudulent files. To this extent, I give credit to the reporter of a confirmed hack. On this same note, I do _not_ intend to "go after" any BBS SysOps who have these programs posted for d/l. The Shareware World operates best when everyone works together, so it would be counter-productive to "rat" on anyone who has such a file on their board. Like I said, my intent is to help, not harm. SysOps are strongly encouraged to read this report and remove all files listed within from their boards. I can not and will not take any "enforcement action" on this, but you never know who else may be calling your board. Pirated commercial software posted for d/l can get you into _deeply_ serious trouble with certain authorities. Updates of programs listed in this report need verification. It is unfortunate that anyone who downloads a file must be paranoid about its legitimacy. Call me a crusader, but I'd really like to see the day that this is no longer true. Until then, if you _know_ of a new official version of a program listed here, please help me verify it. On the same token, hacks need to be verified, too. I won't be held responsible for falsely accusing the real thing of being a fraud. So, innocent until proven guilty, but unofficial until verified. Upcoming official releases will not be included or announced in this report. It is this Co-Moderator's personal opinion that the hype surrounding a pending release leads to hacks and Trojans, which is exactly the opposite of what I'm trying to accomplish here. If you know of any other programs that are hacks, bogus, jokes, hoaxes, etc., please let me know. Thanks for helping to keep shareware clean! Lee Jackson, Author, The Hack Report Co-Moderator, FidoNet International Echo SHAREWRE (1:382/95) Moderator, FidoNet Echo WARNINGS (1:382/95)