clones and treats them exactly the same as nVIR B.

few very minor technical differences. Disinfectant recognizes all of these

appeared. These clones are all identical to nVIR B with the exception of a

In addition to the two basic strains of nVIR, many “clones” of nVIR B have



is enough to cause problems.

As with Scores, nVIR occupies both memory and disk space, and this alone



type “nVIR,” which is how it got its name.

One of the viral resources added to infected files by nVIR has the resource



detection tool.

by looking at your system. You must run Disinfectant or some other virus

Unlike Scores, there is no way to tell that you have an nVIR infection just



properly repair them.

that such offspring are infected by both nVIR A and nVIR B and will

new viruses combining parts of their parents. Disinfectant will report

It is possible for nVIR A and nVIR B to mate and reproduce, resulting in



infected application is run with a probability of 1/64.

is run with a probability of 7/32. A double beep will happen when an

probability of 1/8. A single beep will happen when an infected application

not call MacinTalk. The beep will happen on a system startup with a

When the counter reaches zero, nVIR B will sometimes beep. nVIR B does



or beep twice with a probability of 1/256.

when an infected application is run, nVIR A may say “Don’t panic” twice

probability of 15/128, when an infected application is run. In addition,

system startup with a probability of 1/16. It will also happen, with a

MacinTalk is not installed in the System folder). This will happen on

panic” (if MacinTalk is installed in the System folder) or beep (if

When the counter reaches zero, nVIR A will sometimes either say “Don’t



time an infected application is run.

one each time the system is started up and it is decremented by two each

infected, a counter is initialized to 1000. The counter is decremented by

At first nVIR A and B only replicate. When the System file is first



modified.

usually also become infected, and document files are not infected or

some applications are immune to infection, the Finder and DA Handler

immediately, without the two to three minute delay. As with Scores,

two day delay. Whenever a new application is run, it becomes infected

files. nVIR begins spreading to other applications immediately, without the

infect the Note Pad or Scrapbook files, and it does not create any invisible

nVIR is simpler than Scores. It infects the System file, but it does not



appears to be extinct, and we have not been able to obtain a copy.

malicious. It destroyed files in the System folder. This earlier version

We have reliable reports of an earlier third version of nVIR which was



and “nVIR B.”

virus was written. We know of two basic strains, which we call “nVIR A”

1987 and in the United States in early 1988. At least one variation of the

According to news reports, the nVIR virus first appeared in Europe in




xThe nVIR Virus