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- Some information on the Michelangelo virus:
-
- "Michelangelo activates on March 6, at which time it will format
- the system hard disk by overwriting it with random characters from
- system memory."
-
-
- (This description of the following virus is an extract from the very
- fine VSUM hypertext program. VSUM gives information on most known
- viruses.)
-
- ===================================================
-
-
- Virus Name: Michelangelo
- Aliases:
- Scan ID: [Mich]
- V Status: Common
- Discovered: April, 1991
- Symptoms: Disk directory damage; hard disk format; decrease in total
- system and available memory
- Origin: Sweden or the Netherlands
- Eff Length: N/A
- Type Code: BRtX - Floppy and Hard Disk Partition Table Infector
- Detection Method: ViruScan V80+, F-Prot 1.16+, IBM Scan 2.1+, VIRx 1.8+,
- Novi 1.0.1+, Sweep 2.3.1+, AVTK 5.52A+, UTScan
- Removal Instructions: CleanUp V80+, F-Prot 1.16+
-
- General Comments:
- The Michelangelo virus was first reported in April, 1991 in Sweden
- and the Netherlands. The first usable sample of this virus was
- actually received in June, 1991. Michelangelo is a memory resident
- infector of diskette boot sectors and the hard disk partition table.
- It is roughly based on the Stoned virus, though very different in
- its behavior.
-
- The Michelangelo virus becomes memory resident the first time the
- system is attempted to be booted with a Michelangelo infected disk.
- Regardless of whether this boot is successful, Michelangelo will
- become memory resident. Total system and available free memory, as
- measured by the DOS CHKDSK program will typically decrease by
- 2,048 bytes. Michelangelo will be resident at the top of system
- memory but below the 640K DOS boundary. Interrupt 12's return will
- be moved to insure that Michelangelo in memory is not overwritten.
-
- Once Michaelangelo is memory resident, it will infect diskette boot
- sectors as diskettes as they are accessed. It will also infect
- the hard disk partition table when the user attempts to access a
- file on the hard disk.
-
- On 360K 5.25" diskettes, the original boot sector will be moved by
- the virus to sector 11, the last sector in the root directory. On
- 1.2M 5.25" diskettes, the original boot sector will be relocated to
- sector 28, part of the root directory. Since the original boot
- sector now resides in the root directory, any entries which happened
- to be in the overwritten sector of the root directory will be lost.
- sector 28, part of the root directory. Since the original boot
- sector now resides in the root directory, any entries which happened
- to be in the overwritten sector of the root directory will be lost.
-
- Partition table infections will result in the original partition
- table having been moved to Side 0, Cylinder 0, Sector 7 on the
- hard disk.
-
- Michelangelo activates on March 6, at which time it will format the
- system hard disk by overwriting it with random characters from
- system memory.
-
- ===================================================
-
- Be prepared!
-
- The following files are available for download on this BBS:
-
- 1. SCAN86-B.ZIP Virus scanning software (to look for
- virus infections) - McAfee Assoc
- 2. NETSC86B.ZIP Virus scanning software for DOS based
- LAN file servers (Netware etc.)
- - McAfee Assoc
- 3. CLEAN86B.ZIP Companion to SCAN86-B.ZIP that cleans
- out the virus found by SCAN. - McAfee
- Assoc
- 4. VSHLD86B.ZIP TSR that monitors program loads for
- virus infection. - McAfee Assoc
- 5. VSUMX201.ZIP Origins and symptoms of most known
- viruses.
-
- NOTE:
-
- These programs are Shareware and may require registration with
- the authors. BE SURE to read the terms and conditions in the
- program's documentation and ACT RESPONSIBLY!