The chill is returning to the air as autumn moves on (well, at least in the Northern Hemisphere), and it appears that some Macs have caught two new bugs, viruses actually. Mark Anbinder whipped up these brief descriptions.

CODE-1 -- A virus called CODE-1 has been reported at several sites. Its only explicit action, other than spreading, is to change the name of the startup hard drive to "Trent Saburo" if the Macintosh is restarted on 31-Oct of any year. Because it changes several internal code pointers, this virus may lead to system crashes, unusual application behavior, and other problems. All current antiviral utilities should be updated to handle this virus.

MBDF-B -- MBDF-B is a new variant of the MBDF-A virus, which was first discovered in February 1992. It appears to be a slightly-modified MBDF-A, changed and released by a person or persons unknown. Like the original, this virus does not intentionally cause damage, but may spread quickly and widely, and can cause problems. Some existing Mac antiviral utilities detect this virus, but all utilities should be updated to properly recognize and handle it.

Utility Updates -- Macintosh antiviral developers have released the following antiviral utility versions to handle the CODE-1 and MBDF-B viruses:

• Central Point Anti-Virus 3.0a

• Disinfectant 3.3

• Rival CODE-1 vaccine

• SAM 3.5.9 and associated Virus Definitions file

• Virex 4.1

• Virus Detective 5.0.10

• Gatekeeper 1.2.9

You can find Disinfectant online in all the standard places, including <sumex-aim.stanford.edu> as:

/info-mac/vir/disinfectant-33.hqx

For further information, contact the developer of the utility you use. Please obtain an update immediately and scan for infections. If you use both a scanning utility and a "suspicious activity monitor," be sure to update both utilities. If you do not use antiviral software, we highly recommend that you start.