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-
- Update report of TBSCAN.
-
-
- 3.3
- ---
- -> Errorlevel system changed. Automatic virus detection programs / batch
- files might need to be changed.
-
- TbScan now also searches for a signature file named ADDNSIGS.DAT. This
- file is intended to contain emergency signature updates. It will be
- distributed in an archive named ASIG*.ZIP immediately if a new signature
- is defined. See the VIRSCAN.DAT file for more information.
-
- Implemented register indirect branches. This to increase the reliability
- any further.
-
- TbScan now also warns if an EXE file has no stack. Many viruses simply
- leave out a stack. The warning consist of a "s". Warning "o" is removed.
-
- The TbScan package now contains TbScan.Sys, which is a tiny device driver
- which solves some compatibility problems. If you had to use the -compat
- option you may now instead install TbScan.Sys (only 64 bytes) to enable
- TbScan to bypass some resident viruses and to speed up TbScan. Read the
- manual for more details.
-
- TbScan is now faster than ever due to another optimization and a new
- disk cacher. TbScan will now allocate all available memory for cache
- buffers, unless you specify the -compat option.
-
- The option -nosnow has been changed, now you have to specify -nosnow
- to avoid snow on CGA monitors. This because more recent CGA systems
- don't "snow" already by themself.
-
- Option -extract has been added. This option causes TbScan to display the
- first 20 bytes of the entry-point of every program. This enables you to
- define a temporary signature if you have a virus that is not yet
- recognized. Consult the manual for a "do it yourself" guideline.
- This option is available for registered users only...
-
- Option -once now restores the screen and cursor at termination.
-
- Option -data (-f) in the environment variable now works again.
-
-
- 3.2
- ---
- TbScan now searches and accesses files using the file handle calls
- instead of the FCB functions. This makes TbScan more compatible with
- Local Area Networks. Although these handle functions perform a little
- slower, some additional optimizations of TbScan compensate this.
-
- Removed some bugs. Option -repeat now works again. TbScan now detects
- errors in the data file again. Option -direct now works in combination
- with a Thunderbyte card again. Ctrl-Z as terminator is allowed in the
- data file.
-
- Improved scanning of memory slightly.
-
- The format of AVR modules has been changed. The current AVR format is 1.0.
-
- The Washburn.Avr module has been enhanced and detects now more (probably all)
- mutants of the washburn related viruses. It is now also faster.
-
- TbScan now processes "dword branches" to detect High-Level-Language viruses
- automatically. Although these viruses are very rare they really exists.
-
- Improved warning algorithm "F" and "D". They now also detects some
- "stealth" file and disk access instruction sequences.
-
-
- 3.1
- ---
- Enhanced the processing of the "jump short" instruction while disassembling.
- Enhanced the browsing algorithm to gain a little additional security.
-
- TbScan now switches to analysis mode when detecting an initial branch
- instruction with a memory operand. This to detect a new type virus.
- If TbScan detects an initial branch with a memory operand (which is
- suspicious) it displays warning "J".
-
- Added warning "F": Suspicious file access. This warning means that the
- program accesses files in a way common for viruses.
-
- Enhanced the -mutant option. Detection of "unknown" viruses enhanced. Tests
- in our virus collection (>700 viruses) shows that TbScan without signature
- file still about 50% of the infected files classifies as being "infected by
- an unknown virus". We plan to increase this "unknown virus" recognition even
- further in the near future.
-
- Fixed some minor bugs. TbScan now detects even more viruses.
-
- Previous version of TbScan sometimes disabled interrupts for a long time,
- causing the system clock to slow down on slower machines. Bug solved.
-
- Reorganised some internal structures, causing TbScan to gain a little speed.
-
- TbScan sometimes caused a false alarm, the virus name could not be found:
- ([Can not read datafile]). Problem solved.
-
- TbScan is now able to detect bootsector virus droppers. A bootsector virus
- dropper is a program that writes a virus to the bootsector. The program is
- in a technical point of view not infected (the virus can only infect
- bootsectors) but it can install the virus. TbScan now scans some files
- (depending on the internal structure of the program) also for bootsector
- viruses. Option -analyze disables this feature.
-
- TbScan now inserts Carriage Returns in the LOG file.
-
- If TbScan detects a background write attempt while using the internal cacher,
- the cacher will no longer be disabled but only flushed.
-
-
- 3.0
- ---
- This upgrade has been released a few days after the release of TbScan 2.9.
- Although TbScan was beta-tested very well, it appears it had two bugs causing
- a few machines to hang. The first one has to do with the protection of
- TbScan which caused problems on machines with a NEC Vxx processor, the
- second with the detection of upper memory. Both problems are solved.
-
- TbScan now always searches for upper memory, even if no XMS driver has
- been installed. So even in XT's TbScan searches for memory above the
- DOS limit. This implies that video memory and EMS memory are always scanned
- in every machine. If you don't want to scan upper memory use the -nohmem
- switch. Since upper memory is always scanned by default, there is no
- need for the -highmem option anymore and it has been removed.
-
- New option added: -hma. This forces TbScan to scan the HMA even if there
- is no XMS driver detected.
-
- TbScan now restores the default screen color even if there is no ANSI driver
- installed.
-
- TbScan now forces the -compat switch if it detects Desqview.
-
- Format-error of TbScan.Doc fixed, compatibility error of Install.Bat fixed.
-
-
- 2.9
- ---
- Major upgrade! Many little bugs solved, quirks removed, new features
- implemented, reliability boosted, screen lay-out changed, limits removed,
- manual rewritten.
-
- -> TBSCAN HAS BEEN CONVERTED TO AN EXE FILE!!! REMOVE YOUR OLD TBSCAN.COM!
- If you don't remove your old TbScan.Com, DOS will executed the .COM file
- instead of the new TbScan.EXE file!
-
- -> You have to run the batch file INSTALL.BAT to install TbScan.
-
- New key system developed. Previously registered users will receive a
- key file within a few days after this release.
-
- The differences between the current and previous version of TbScan are so
- numerous that it is recommended to reread the (also rewritten) manual.
- The Dutch manual has been removed, it takes too much time to keep two
- manuals up to date.
-
- TbScan is faster than ever! (about twice as fast as v2.8).
- - The analyzis method is about 50% faster!
- - "Checking" and "tracing" are about 10% faster.
- - Disk IO is 15% faster! Implemented internal cacher!
- - The "slowest" "Analyzis" scanning method is used less.
- - Screen IO (scrolling!) is at least 200% faster.
- - Internal DOS buffers will be optimized dynamically.
- - Added two new fast algorithms: "skipping" and "browsing".
- - Log file handling is now fully buffered.
-
- Screen lay-out changed! TbScan is now a fullscreen program. The screen
- is divided into two parts: a scan window and an info window. The info
- window shows the header of the signature file, and if TbScan detects
- infected files it will print them in that window with their complete
- path name. Also some important warnings are logged into the info window.
- The screen output is Desqview aware, CGA snow aware and "non-standard"
- screen dimensions aware. The -compat switch no longer disables the colors.
-
- New wonderfull feature added! There are some completely encrypted viruses
- which can not be detected by any signature. The only way to detect such
- viruses is by applying a special detection algorithm on the files. Instead
- of hardcoding these recognition algorithms we decided to make them external.
- Since it is not possible and even not desirable to define such an algorithm
- in any signature file language, the "Algorithmic-Virus-Detection" (AVR)
- modules contain the actual program code to detect the virus. The AVR modules
- will be supplied with future upgrades of the signature files. TbScan searches
- at program startup for .AVR files and links them dynamically into its code.
- Nice isn't it?
-
- Another new feature you will like is the -mutant option. If you specify this
- option TbScan will recognize mutants of a virus, even if no wildcards are
- used in the signature.
-
- TbScan now also searches for a virscan.dat file in its home directory.
-
- Fixed a bug that caused long wildcarded signatures like the Murphy virus
- family signature to be parsed incorrectly.
-
- Fixed a DMA-problem that occured with some older PC's when the -direct switch
- was specified.
-
- On some systems TbScan occasionally didn't succeed in reading some files.
- This is caused by some quirk in DOS redirectors. TbScan has been changed to
- operate on those systems without errors.
-
- The maximum number of signatures is no longer hardcoded. It is now dependant
- of the actual length of the signatures. The memory reserved for signatures
- should be enough for at least 2500 signatures. Note that the memory
- requirements don't increase when the number of signatures increases. The
- current memory requirements already incoporate the space needed to manage
- 2500 signatures.
-
- The size of the signature file is no longer limited to 64Kb. It may have
- any size.
-
- Disk IO speed has been increased. TbScan now disables temporary any
- disk cacher and installs a temporary new one. Why? Because disk cachers
- don't know that all data read by the scanner will be used only once, and
- therefore they waste many clockcycles by managing megabytes of data
- for no reason. On the other hand, while scanning, DOS needs the FAT and
- directory information a lot and only for these regions a cacher would
- be nice. The solution to this problem is to install a dedicated cacher
- that "knows" which data will be re-used and which will not. Only a
- built-in cacher is able to determine this. Now TbScan has one, and you
- will see how high its hit-rate is and how fast TbScan performs. You can
- test the performance of the internal cacher by using the -compat switch
- to disable internal caching. Internal caching will be disabled automatically
- if a disk error occurs or if a background task writes data to the disk.
-
- The readahead story above applies also to the DOS lookahead buffers: if you
- have specified the Y parameter of the DOS "BUFFERS=X,Y" command, TbScan will
- temporary disable the DOS lookahead buffers to increase the scanning speed.
- The cacher of TbScan has an internal lookahead algorithm which performs
- much better. I'm not better than Microsoft, but my algorithm is optimized
- for use with TbScan and that from Microsoft certainly not. Anyway, you
- can use the -compat switch to disable the BUFFERS override.
-
- Internal disassembler enhanced. TbScan now needs the "slowest" analyzis
- method less, without any reliability loss. This decreases the chances of
- false alarms, and has as positive side effect that TbScan performs a
- little faster again.
-
- Two new fast scanning algorithms added: "skipping" and "browsing".
-
- In analyze or browsing mode some warnings are now also enabled. Note that
- it is impossible to enable all warnings in analyze mode because some
- suspicious facts can only be detected while disassembling the file, which
- will not be done by those scanning techniques.
-
- Added some new warnings:
- - "Direct Disk IO" (D).
- - "Suspicious relocator" (R).
- - "multiple-jump" (J).
- - "memory resident code (M).
- - "internal-overlay" (i).
- - "inconsistent header" (?).
- - "odd stack offset"
-
- Enhanced the compressed file detector to detect also executable
- compressors developed according to new Microsoft DOS 5.0 standards.
-
- Enhanced the decryptor detection. False warnings will occur less,
- while detection capabilities have been increased.
-
- Enhanced the invalid filetime detector. Now also invalid minutes,
- hours, and dates are reported. The warning also occurs for dates
- above the year 2000.
-
- Changed the memory scanning to allow it to operate on systems with "slow"
- upper memory, and on PC's that generate a parity error when memory is tried
- to read that does not exists.
-
- Changed option -nowarn to disable "standard" (non-alarming) warnings only.
-
- Added option -? to get a short help (instead of a partial doc file).
-
- TbScan now handles the ctrl-break itself and disables the DOS Ctrl-break
- detection. This increases reliability and speed...
-
- Removed the TEXT search possibility (literal signatures). It isn't likely
- that ever a signature will be based on a text-string. Will anybody miss
- this feature?
-
- The maximum line length of the data file is increased to 132 bytes. The maximum
- length of the ASCII-HEX signature has also been increased to 132 bytes.
-
- Removed the -quiet option. Did anybody ever use it?
-
- Introduced the -quick option. If you specify this option TbScan runs in "turbo
- mode". In this mode TbScan skips .OV? and .SYS and .BIN files and does not take
- account for some rather theoretical possibilities. This mode is less secur,
- but excellent for the "after lunch" scan session since it still recognizes
- almost all of the viruses.
-
- TbScan now scans .BIN files for SYS viruses. As extra feature for virus
- researchers, TbScan also scans .BIN files for BOOT viruses. Many researchers
- archive bootsector viruses in .BIN files and TbScan can now be used to test
- the signatures.
-
- Removed the alternate language option which was used by Thunderbyte users.
- There are too many changes in this new version of TbScan to get translations
- for all foreign languages in a short period of time.
-
-
- 2.8
- ---
- Implemented the "%" wildcard (variable amount of garbage bytes).
-
- Added the H warning for Hidden or System files.
-
- Changed the more prompt to process repons keys like Y and N.
-
- TbScan now always saves and restores the current directory.
-
- TbScan now uses colors! For people that don't like them: use option
- -compat to disable the colors.
-
- Modified the -direct option so that also the data file will be read
- by direct calls in DOS code.
-
- Fixed an error in the English documentation file, causing the -help
- option to operate incorrectly.
-
- Fixed a rare problem that could cause file open errors.
-
- Removed a bug that caused "integrity check failed" to be displayed
- when TbScan does not find its datafile.
-
- TbScan displayed some garbage if it found the datafile in its home
- directory. Solved.
-
- Some minor internal changes.
-
-
- 2.7
- ---
- Added the "obsolete datafile" warning. TbScan now issues a warning if
- the signature file is older than three months (except if the -valid
- option has been specified).
-
- Enhanced the functionality of the -help option. If TbScan has access to
- TbScan.Doc it will extract a more detailed help from the manual.
-
- The -verbose option now displays zero again if the file is being
- analyzed.
-
- TbScan now preserves BP,DI and SI while using the BIOS screen routines.
- This should increase compatibility especially for older IBM type PC's.
-
- TbScan is now more network aware, and issues the E (open error)
- warning if it attempts to re-open a locked file. It does not
- cause an "Abort Retry Ignore" prompt anymore.
-
- Ctrl-break interrupt is now trapped, to avoid program termination in
- critical sections which could cause system hang. The Escape key is
- now no longer processed.
-
- Added the garble warning (#). If a program seems to carry a self-
- decrypting routine TbScan issues this warning. Nice for detecting
- unknown viruses! As a matter of fact, TbScan assumes that a program
- is infected by an unknown virus if the file carries a decrypting routine
- and has an invalid time stamp as well. This mechanism detects for example
- the Tequilla virus, although it is not listed in the data file.
-
- TbScan now displays a message if the integrity check fails, before
- returning to DOS.
-
- Implemented total disk scanning with option -sector. Consult the
- manual for more details.
-
- Enhanced the -direct option to perform even more reliable.
-
- Implemented nibble wildcards. Consult the manual for details.
-
- Improved signature file error detection.
-
- TbScan now displays the name and path of the signature file being used.
-
- Replaced the TESTVIR files with a TEST.DAT test-signature file.
-
-
- 2.6
- ---
- TbScan 2.5 was supplied with only the Dutch manual. Sorry for that!
-
- Removed bugs related to the contents of the log file (missing carriage
- return and missing warning mark if the -quiet option was specified).
-
- Removed a bug related to the list file feature (@<filename>).
-
- TbScan now prints the elapsed time on the screen.
-
-
- 2.5
- ---
- TbScan is no longer completely free-ware! Consult the manual for more
- information.
-
- Added the E (open error) and W (windows or OS/2 file) warning.
-
- TbScan will now put warnings into the log or session file.
-
- Added the -w (-nowarn) command line switch. If you use this switch
- warnings are not logged to the log or session file.
-
- Disabled the N-warning for overlays (OV?) with an exe-header.
- Overlays with an exe-header are still scanned for EXE type viruses.
-
- TbScan sometimes randomly thought that a .COM file was corrupted, which
- wasn't true, causing it to switch unnecessary into analyze mode. Solved.
-
- Signatures in the .DAT file may now contain spaces to increase the
- readability and to maintain compatibility with an other scanner.
-
- Updated the file TESTVIR.COM to match the new signature listed in the
- most recent signature file.
-
- When scanning memory, the range of the '**' wildcard has been limited to
- 32Kb instead of your entire memory. This avoids some false alarms. The
- memory is now scanned in 32Kb chunks instead of chunks of 64Kb. The
- range of the '**' wildcard is still unlimited when scanning files, because
- it offers a powerfull feature to scan for viruses that scatter themself
- all over a program file.
-
- Signatures beginning with 00 are now processed properly.
-
- TbScan is tested very carefully, and it detects ALL viruses when scanning
- in 'turbo'-mode, unlike some previous versions of TbScan which
- unfortunately only detected 97% of the viruses listed in the signature file.
- To avoid confusion, the revised scanning method is called "checking". The
- old (a little less reliable) scanning method "scanning" has been removed.
-
- The slower "analyze" method is used less, because the new "checking"
- algorithm is able to debug a file better. The analyze method is only
- used if the debugger is not completely sure. The result is that TbScan
- performs once again faster than ever...
-
-
- 2.4
- ---
- The new string search algorithm has been enhanced even further, and
- TbScan is now 25% faster compared to TbScan 2.3! The speed increasement
- however is most noticable when checking files using the analyze method.
-
- Fully implemented the (until today) experimental "**" wildcard. This
- wildcard is used in the most recent signature file. For TbScan this
- wildcard means "skip an unlimited number of bytes".
-
- TbScan now prints warning marks while processing a file. The following
- warning marks might be printed:
- P Packed or compressed file. Also EXEPACKed files are detected.
- Note that TbScan does not recognize any special compressing
- package, it uses an universal way to detect whether a file has
- been compressed. Let me know if you have a compression technique
- it doesn't recognize.
- N Name conflict. The file has been named .EXE but seems to be a
- .COM file, or vice versa. TbScan will scan the file for both
- COM and EXE type signatures.
- T Invalid file time. Seconds are set on 60 or 62. Some viruses
- use this as an infection mark.
- A File seems to be an ASCII file.
- ! Entry point located outside file, or a chain of jumps traces
- outside the body of the file. Probably the file is seriously
- damaged and can not be executed. TbScan analyzes the file in
- this case.
-
- Enhanced the internal code interpreter. Tbscan needs the analyze mode less,
- and performs even more reliable.
-
- The minimum length of the code that should be "stable" has been increased.
- This finally solves the problem that TbScan did not find a few signatures.
-
- Fixed a screen color problem due to the direct screen write. Fixed also
- some other screen related minor problems.
-
- Fixed a bug in the command line parser. It didn't recognize the '+'sign
- anymore.
-
-
- 2.3
- ---
- Major upgrade!
-
- You don't believe it, but just before I would release this new version I
- got a fantastic idea to eliminate almost all overhead involved with the
- scanning of data! Depending of the speed of your disk, TbScan is now
- approximately 30% faster!!! Almost all time involved with executing this
- scanner is due to disk access. One "disadvantage" is that TbScan now
- needs an additional 64Kb of memory. The total memory requirement of
- TbScan is now 192 Kb. Still not a limitation at all...
-
- Due to the new fast string search algorithm, it was not possible to
- optimize the routine any further for the 80386 processor. The special
- 80386 version of TbScan is therefore no longer available.
-
- New options added! Because TbScan already carried so much options, it
- became a little difficult to remember all those options. Now TbScan
- recognizes complete option words too!
-
- TbScan now displays a prompt if it finds a virus. You are prompted to
- rename or delete the infected file, or just continue scanning. You can
- also instruct TbScan on the command line to delete or rename the
- infected files. Of course it is still possible to run TbScan in
- unattended (batch) mode.
-
- Added the feature asked for by numerous people: "scan multiple diskettes".
- TbScan will automatically detect a disk change, so you can scan multiple
- diskettes without the need to press a key while changing disks.
-
- TbScan will now scan the HMA too.
-
- TbScan will now automatically scan the HMA and Upper Memory if present.
- Option -e now disables this feature, instead of enabling it!
-
- People complained that TbScan was not able to detect a very few viruses.
- I don't have those viruses, but I assume that the signatures are created
- for use with the (obsolete) virscan program. TbScan requires the signatures
- to be code within a distance of 2Kb of the virus entry point. To gain
- compatibility with the older signatures, TbScan will now scan a larger
- window of the files. This should solve the incompatibility problem with
- the older signatures.
-
- Added the -once option. It makes it possible to include TbScan in your
- autoexec.bat file to scan automatically some (all?) files once a day.
- If you boot more than once a day TbScan will exit immediately to DOS.
-
- TbScan writes now directly to the screen. The lack of speed of the video
- BIOS became a bottleneck! However, you can use the -compat switch to
- continue using the BIOS in the case it causes trouble.
-
- Increased the maximum number of viruses to 600.
-
- TbScan did not recognize the -u (-valid) option. Solved.
-
- TbScan is now again compatible with DOS 2.xx
-
- Fixed a bug in the header of the log file.
-
-
- 2.2
- ---
- Added the possibility to use response files. Response files are files
- that contain a list of paths and/or filenames to be scanned. Prefix
- a filename with the character '@' and TbScan will consider it being a
- response file.
-
- Added the -e option. This option makes it possible to scan memory above
- the 640Kb barrier. Nice for detecting video-viruses or upper-memory-
- viruses.
-
- Added a processor type detector to the 386-version of TbScan.
-
- The -d option now detects upper RAM and will no longer consider it as
- being a DOS-ROM or Thunderbyte ROM. TbScan should now be able to
- determine the correct DOS entry point in machines with upper memory.
-
- The -d option now also works with DOS 5.00 and Dr-DOS.
-
-
- 2.1a
- ----
- When using a .PRS file TbScan did not display the correct number of
- signatures. Fixed.
-
-
- 2.1
- ---
- Fixed a bug introduced in version 2.0 that caused the bootsector from
- large DOS partitions not being scanned sometimes.
-
- Corrected a bug introduced in version 2.0 that caused TbScan to assume
- always that the number of screen rows is 25.
-
- TbScan now supports pre-parsed datafiles. You can create pre-parsed
- datafiles by using the -p [<filename>] switch.
-
- Added the experimental -o (optimize) switch. It can be used to merge
- signatures that are more than 75% equal. It was created as a test to
- enhance TbScanX (it saves memory), but it also increases the scan speed
- somewhat. I did not remove the option, so have fun with it!
-
- TbScan now finally destroys its internal data structures before
- terminating, so other scanners that will be invoked later on will not
- find the signatures left in memory by TbScan.
-
-
- 2.0
- ---
- This release is a performance and safety upgrade.
-
- TbScan is now even 5% faster, due to branch optimization.
-
- Improved memory scanning. Now it is much faster!
-
- Enhanced the run-time debugger. TbScan now uses the slower analyzis
- methode less! This causes a big speed inprovement, especially when
- scanning compressed files (files compressed with PkLite or LzExe).
-
- The package now also contains TbScan.386 which is the special 80386 version
- of TbScan. If you have a 80386 processor in your PC, rename TbScan.386 to
- TbScan.COM. It is somewhat faster...
-
- TbScan now checks its memory image before scanning. If the internal
- CRC does not match it will not continue. Note that this safety check
- is not 100% proof. That is not possible. TbScan will also check some
- parts of the disk image to increase the safety.
-
- TbScan is now more difficult to hack. Some bad guys were making money from
- this free-ware scanner... The first one who succeeds to change the copyright
- notice of TbScan v2.0 will get a registration key for TbScanX for free!
-
- Added the signature file authorization check. Future signature files will
- be checksummed to make sure you have an unmodified copy of it. Signatures
- can still be added to the list manually if you want to. You can also
- override the authorization check with the new -U option...
-
- Added support for environment variable TBSCAN. You can use this variable to
- specify default options for TbScan (like a default signature file!).
-
- Corrected a small bug in the command line parser. The -f option now always
- works as expected.
-
- Corrected the bug that caused the machine to lock up after aborting TbScan
- with Ctrl-C or Escape.
-
-
- 1.9
- ---
- Fixed a minor internal bug.
-
-
- 1.8
- ---
- Fixed a bug introduced in v1.7 that caused the bootsector on the default
- disk to be scanned instead of the specified one. When scanning multiple
- paths the bootsector of each specified path will be scanned too.
-
- Added new commandline option -V (verbose). Use this option if you want to
- see the scan offset of all files. The number specified is the offset of
- the location in the file where the startup code of the executable file
- has been found.
-
- TBSCAN now also searches for hidden- and system files. Also hidden
- directories will be processed.
-
- Implemented the ** wildcard (skip an unlimited amount of garbage bytes).
-
- Added language file support, to be used with future versions of the
- Thunderbyte add-on card.
-
-
- 1.7
- ---
- TBSCAN is now even 5% faster, due to an internal optimalization of
- register usage!
-
- Revision of commandline interface. New options added! Added the
- possibility to specify the name of the log file, log file append-mode,
- etc. It is now also possible to specify multiple scan paths like:
- TBSCAN c:\ d:\test c:\utils
- Look in the manual for more details, or type TBSCAN /H. The commandline
- interface is backwards compatible, the old syntax is still valid.
-
-
- 1.6
- ---
- Minor upgrade. Removed some little bugs and optimized some code. This
- version is a little bit faster. Scanning all files for all viruses now
- also uses the fast string search algorithm.
-
- Added the announcement-sign. Lines beginning with a semi-colon followed
- by a percent sign are printed on the screen. A maximum of 15 lines of
- hot news in the signature file can be printed on the users screen.
-
- Changed the *-wildcard format. The hex character following the asterisk
- determines the EXACT number of bytes to be skipped, not the MAXIMUM
- number of bytes to be skipped. To skip a variable amount of garbage
- bytes specify also an asterisk instead of the length mark. See the
- manual for more details.
-
- TBSCAN processes now also overlay files. Overlay files are files with the
- extension OV?. Since overlay files can be infected by some EXE viruses,
- TBSCAN scans the overlay files for all signatures which have the EXE
- flag set.
-
- NEW!!! There is a shareware memory resident version of TBSCAN available.
- It is now one time supplied with this TBSCAN release. Future versions
- will be supplied seperately.
- File request TBSCANX, or download the file TBSCN10.ZIP manually from our
- BBS (31-85-212395), or register TBSCANX to get a fully functional
- version!
-
- NOTE: TBSCAN is still free-ware, if you sent us a register form, you
- register for TBSCANX, the memory resident version.
-
-
- 1.5
- ---
- TBSCAN is faster than ever! By using a faster string search algorithm
- "scanning" and "tracing" are now more than twice as fast, and
- "analyzing" is four (!) times faster than ever!!! Amazing...
-
- TBSCAN now also bypasses all resident programs while reading the
- bootsector and partition table with the /D option enabled. This means
- that a virus can no longer fool TBSCAN by providing an unaltered copy of
- the bootsector / partition table. With other words, TBSCAN searches the
- BIOS entry point of the int 13h handler, and calls the BIOS directly,
- just as some nasty viruses do.
-
- For reasons of compatibility with another virus scanner, the *-wildcard
- is now also supported. The signature can now contain a variable amount
- of garbage bytes. See the manual for more details.
-
- The maximum number of signatures has been increased. Now up to 500
- signatures can be processed. The maxmium size of the TBSCAN.DAT file has
- been increased and is now 64Kb. However, you can not increase limits
- without creating other ones: TBSCAN now needs 128Kb of free memory to
- operate properly. Still not a limitation at all...
-
- This release also contains many other small improvements and little bug
- fixes.
-
- TBSCAN.DAT is no longer supplied with the program files. Download
- VIRUSSIG.ZIP or TBVIRSIG.ZIP to get the most updated TBSCAN.DAT file.
-
-
- 1.4
- ---
- Important upgrade!
-
- Modified the tracing mechanism so that also viruses that have their
- entry point at the end of the code are detected very well!!! Previous
- versions of TBSCAN where not able to detect some viruses like the Fish
- and Vacsina, except when the /A option was used.
-
- TBSCAN now supports filenames (or wildcards) in the search path. Now it
- is possible to inspect one specified file, or to inspect non-executable
- files. See the manual for detailed information.
-
- Fixed a bug that caused the results of the bootsector, partitiontable
- and memory scan to be recorded incorrect in the log file (only the name
- of the virus appeared).
-
-
- 1.3
- ---
- TBSCAN now also checks the partition table for viruses. Previous
- versions did not, because there was no reliable way to determine
- whether the specified drive has a partition table. Now TBSCAN intercepts
- int 13 while reading the bootsector, and determines if the sector read
- by DOS is read from the first fixed disk in the system. If this is the
- case TBSCAN will also read the partition table. This ensures that TBSCAN
- will not screw up LAN's and other non-standard systems.
-
- By populair demand, the /V (verbose) option has been removed. Now
- TBSCAN will always print the scanned file on the screen, except when the
- /Q (Quiet) option has been specified. The /Q option has been added for
- those that don't want to see al their files scrolling over the screen.
- For backward compatibility, the /V option will be ignored and will not
- cause an error message.
-
- The log file has been improved. Now the date of the scan, the command
- line parameters, and the results are always inserted in the log file.
-
-
- 1.2
- ---
- TBSCAN 1.1 was unable to read the bootsector if you use a dos 4 large
- disk partition (> 32Mb). It also failed to display the error message if
- it couldn't scan the bootsector. Both problems are solved.
-
- The /M option has been reversed. If you specify this parameter, you will
- get a more prompt. If you ommit the parameter, you will not.
-
- The usage of TBSCAN by numerous people learned us that the
- interpreter-mechanism is very reliable. So we removed the check of
- the last part of the executable file. This caused TBSCAN to be a lot
- faster, without loss of reliability.
-
- The scan process of TBSCAN can now be aborted by the user by pressing
- escape or Ctrl-C.
-
-
- 1.1
- ---
- In version 1.0 the TBSCAN.DAT file will not be found if it is not in the
- current directory. Now the file will be searched in the home directory
- of TBSCAN.COM (Dos 3.0+).
-
-
- 1.0
- ---
- Initial release of TBSCAN.
-