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Text File | 1993-03-07 | 53KB | 1,098 lines

========================================================================= || From the files of The Hack Squad: || by Lee Jackson, Co-Moderator, || FidoNet International Echo SHAREWRE The Hack Report || Volume 2, Number 3 for March, 1993 || Report Date: March 7, 1993 || ========================================================================= Welcome to the third 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, another commercial software company contacts your Hack Squad, and several new Trojans rear their ugly heads. Also, this issue introduces some minor formatting changes and an addition to the archive version: an internal archive with the full text of file tests performed this year. 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. ************************************************************************* Hacked Programs Here are the latest 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 ARJ239C (* - see note) | Reported By: Tommy Vielkanowitz(1:151/2305) | 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 | F-Prot Virus Scanner FP-205B FP-207 Reported By: Bill Lambdin (1:343/45) 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 SHEZ87 SHEZ73 Reported By: Bill Lambdin (1:343/45) Telix Telix v3.20 TLX320-1 (Prior to Dec. 1992) TLX320-2 Telix v3.25 TLX320-3 Reported By: Brian C. Blad (1:114/107) TLX320-4 Peter Kirn (WildNet, via 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. Please Note - the 3.20 release dated either December 10th or December 14th, 1992, is legitimate: any earlier file calling itself v3.20 and carrying an Exis, Inc. trademark is not legitimate. Please thoroughly check your version prior to sending questions to this reporter! <g> 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) | * - Quick break with tradition: by the time you read this, | ARJ239D may have been released. Robert Jung has announced | that this is a bug fix to the current pre-release, ARJ239C. ========================================================================= Hoax Alert: | This isn't a program hoax, but it concerns a company that most folks know | of. You might want to see this. | | A letter/text file/message 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), Jeff White (1:300/23), and Bill Lambdin (1:343/45). 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 Trojan writers seem to be getting a bit trickier with their code lately - two of this month's reports involve "multipartite Trojans," or Trojans whose code is split among two or more files and reassembled by a "clean" program. In honor of this, I recommend that you grab a Banana Split, cover your keyboard, and read on. | Last month's issue included a report on a "fix" for PKZip v2.04c (yes, I | mean 2.04c this time) that corrected the -$ (store disk volume) bug. The | bulk of the report came from Jeff White of The Pueblo Group in Tuscon, | Arizona, and had reference to some suspicious code in the file. | | The biggest question brought up by the test concerned the following code: | | Address: 0000d0e0-0000d110 | Code: x:/ x: *.* / Erasing contents of drive, completed. | | I have received a message from a user whose name I no longer have on file | (please forgive me - NetMail me and I'll add your name to the report!) | which states that this same text string can be seen within legitimate | versions of PKZip (both v2.04e and the latest, v2.04g). It can't be seen | by using a file/hex viewer, but it can be seen if the code is debugged, | and only after the program has un-PKLited itself. | | *** EDITOR'S NOTE - I need to state that this is not something that I | encourage, since many shareware licenses state that debugging, | disassembly, and/or reverse engineering is not allowed. However, | hopefully the folks at PKWare won't mind this bit of software sleuthing, | since it is in their best interest to get to the heart of this matter. | | If you want to see the full text of the test results on this, see the | file PKZIPFIX.RES in the archive FILETSTS.LZH, included in the archive | version of The Hack Report. | | As always, our thanks go out to Bill and Jeff for their invaluable help. 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. | Bill Lambdin (1:343/45) 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 - as soon | as possible, I will try to get it tested to see just exactly what it | does. | 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 (1:387/641) 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. Mike Wenthold (1:271/47) found a program under the filename GS2000 which contained the VCL 3 [Con] Virus. I am attempting to get further details on what this file is, but until then, here is the archive data that Mike sent: Length Method Size CF Date Time CRC Filename ======== ======== ======== ==== ========= ====== ======== ============ 1984 1304 34% 22-Dec-91 01:40p 3527B16B GS2000.COM 543 363 33% 22-Dec-91 01:58p DB83A2C0 GSUNP.DOC ======== ======== ======== ==== ========= ====== ======== ============ 2527 1667 34% 2 files. The compression method (on this ZIP archive) was not included in his data. 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). 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 Bill Lambdin (1:343/45). 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 Conference), via Bill Lambdin (1:343/45). 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) 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) Check-It PC CHECKIT HW Bert Bredewoud Diagnostic Software CHKIT20 Bill Lambdin 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) | Golden Axe (game) GOLDAXE Harold Stein | Ian Bothams Cricket IBCTDT Vince Sorensen (1:140/121) Killing Cloud (game) CLOUD Mike Wenthold | Life & Death (game) L&D1 Harold Stein | L&D2 MegaMan (game) MEGAMAN Emanuel Levy (1:266/63) | Oh No, More Lemmings ONMLEMM Larry Dingethal (1:273/231) | (complete-not demo) Over the Net OTNINC1 Tim Sitzler (1:206/2708) (volleyball game) 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 Bill Lambdin Psion Chess 3D-CHESS Matt Farrenkopf (1:105/376) QModem v6.0 QM60IST1 Francois Thunus (2:270/25) QM60IST2 QModem Pro QMPRO-1 Mark Mistretta QMPRO-2 Rack 'Em (game) RACKEM Ruth Lee (1:106/5352) | 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 | SideKick 2.0 SK3 Harold Stein SimCity (by Maxis) SIMCTYSW Scott Wunsch | 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) Vegas Casino 2 (game) VEGAS2 The Hack Squad WinWay Resume for WINRES Erez Carmel (CompuServe, Windows 70523,2574) | World Class Rugby WCRFNTDT Vince Sorensen ========================================================================= ?????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 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. Bill Lambdin (1:343/45) 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. | 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> Travis Griggs (1:3807/4.25) 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 Russian Mirror virus. The file, according to Travis, claimed to be a game. I would appreciate further confirmation of this sighting. | An update on a warning from Mark Stansfield (1:115/404), concerning | the files KILL and PROTECT. He claims that these delete the user's hard | drive when run. Dan Onstott (1:100/470) reported in the FidoNet SHAREWRE | echo that he has a small utility called PROTECT.COM (205 bytes, dated | 12-10-86), which is a write-protect utility for your hard drive. He says | he has never had a problem with it. | | Jerry Han (jhan@debra.dgbt.doc.ca) has a copy of a program called KILL. | This file is a utility that removes entire branches of a directory tree, | and is safe when used correctly. The program was written by two of his | friends and distributed as shareware: current version is 1.5. | | So, Mark's report may be an isolated incident. If anyone else sees the | files Mark mentioned, please advise. 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. Another one forwarded by Bill comes from Michael Santos in the Intelec Net Chat conference, concerning a screen saver named IM. This is only a "hearsay" report from one of Michael's friends, who says he downloaded it and wound up with a virus. There is no way to tell if the infection came from the file itself or if it was already present on his friend's system. Once again, if anyone can clear this up, please do so. 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 (sic)," 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. 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. I need to know what the real name of this game is so that I can include it in the pirated files section (if necessary). 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 beta version numbered 2.39b). 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. | 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. | Jeffrey Marshall (1:153/733) forwarded information confirming that | STARGOOSE, listed in the list as SPACEGOO, is copyrighted freeware and | can be distributed via BBSs. If someone has merely renamed the archive, | then I might consider the SPACEGOO file a hoax. However, I have no | information to support this. Therefore, SPACEGOO comes out of the list, | unless someone has specific information on it. Thanks to Jeffrey for his | help. | HW Nemrod Kedem says that FIXDOS50 is an official patch for IBM DOS v5.0, | according to his contact with IBM officials. IBM has had a policy of | releasing some patches via BBS systems, so FIXDOS50 comes off the list. | Emanuel Levy (1:266/63) has some more input to add to last month's | information: | | AFOX - possibly Artic Fox by Electronic Arts | WINGIF - possible registered version of a shareware Windows .GIF viewer | 387DX - sounds like a Math Co-Processor emulator - might be legit | | Confirmation of these would be appreciated. In the meantime, here are | the remaining unresolved reports from Emanuel: "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 "Antix may be Artic Antix one lof the Spy vs Spy games | Thanks, Emanuel. While we're on the subject of ANTIX, here is some | further information on this file: | | Andrew McCullough (1:2614/409) has a copy of a game called ANTIX, | mentioned above. According to Andrew, "as far as I can tell it is | legit." He says it is a "'dinky' little program where you try to eat | away 75% of the screen without being hit by the 'bad guys'." | | Steve Huston (1:266/49) and Matthew Evanson (mevanson@iastate.edu) | confirm Andrew's report. Matthew says that it used to be a top download | on America OnLine, and that it is a legitimate shareware game. So, with | this, ANTIX comes off the list. 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 columnar lists. I would appreciate any help that anyone can offer in verifying the status of these files. Until I receive some 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. NAVM Copyrighted. No permission to copy granted. TESTCOM Copyrighted. No permission to copy granted. 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. AFOX A cracked commercial program. BANNER Copyrighted. No docs. No permission to copy granted. WINGIF14 The author's documentation specifically requests this file to not be distributed. INTELCOM Copyrighted. No docs. No permission to copy granted. 387DX Copyrighted. No docs or permission to copy granted. WINDRV Copyrighted. No permission to copy granted. ========================================================================= 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, Co-Moderator, FidoNet International Echo SHAREWRE, and Moderator, FidoNet Echo WARNINGS (1:382/95)