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- VIRUS-L Digest Tuesday, 8 Aug 1989 Volume 2 : Issue 170
-
- Today's Topics:
-
- WARNING: New Mac virus (reposted from comp.sys.mac)
- Typo Virus (PC)
- Israeli Boot Virus (PC)
- nFLU Virus & Disinfectant (Mac)
- FLU_SHOT+ V1.6 and Boot Blocks (PC)
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 07 Aug 89 12:48:25 -0000
- From: "John Norstad" <jln@acns.nwu.edu>
- Subject: WARNING: New Mac virus (reposted from comp.sys.mac)
-
- Another Macintosh virus named "nFLU" has been discovered at the
- University of Minnesota. This virus is identical to nVIR B,
- except for the name change.
-
- Disinfectant version 1.2 has been configured to recognize nFLU.
- We recommend that all Disinfectant users obtain a copy of this new version.
-
- Version 1.2 also contains a few other minor changes. For a detailed
- list of all the changes see the section titled "Version History"
- in the online document.
-
- Disinfectant is free.
-
- Features:
-
- - - Detects and repairs files infected by Scores, nVIR A, nVIR B, Hpat,
- AIDS, MEV#, nFLU, INIT 29, ANTI, and MacMag. These are all of the
- currently known Macintosh viruses.
- - - Scans volumes (entire disks) in either virus check mode or virus
- repair mode.
- - - Option to scan a single folder or a single file.
- - - Option to "automatically" scan a sequence of floppies.
- - - Option to scan all mounted volumes.
- - - Can scan both MFS and HFS volumes.
- - - Dynamic display of the current folder name, file name, and a thermometer
- indicating the progress of a scan.
- - - All scans can be canceled at any time.
- - - Scans produce detailed reports in a scrolling field. Reports can be
- saved as text files and printed with an editor or word processor.
- - - Carefully designed human interface that closely follows Apple's
- guidelines. All operations are initiated and controlled by 8 simple
- standard push buttons.
- - - Uses an advanced detection and repair algorithm that can handle partial
- infections, multiple infections, and other anomalies.
- - - Careful error checking. E.g., properly detects and reports damaged and
- busy files, out of memory conditions, disk full conditions on attempts
- to save files, insufficient privileges on server volumes, and so on.
- - - Works on any Mac with at least 512K of memory running System 3.2
- or later with HFS.
- - - Can be used on single floppy drive Macs with no floppy shuffling.
- - - Extensive online document describing Disinfectant, viruses in general,
- the Mac viruses in particular, recommendations for "safe" computing,
- Vaccine, and other virus fighting tools. We tried to include everything in
- the document that the average Mac user needs to know about viruses.
-
- John Norstad
- Academic Computing and Network Services
- Northwestern University
- 2129 Sheridan Road
- Evanston, IL 60208
-
- Bitnet: jln@nuacc
- Internet: jln@acns.nwu.edu
- AppleLink: a0173
- CompuServe: 76666,573
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 05 Aug 89 16:55:21 -0700
- From: portal!cup.portal.com!Alan_J_Roberts@Sun.COM
- Subject: Typo Virus (PC)
-
- I just began an analysis of the Typo virus and, as with all new
- reported viruses, I ran McAfee's ViruScan against it as a first step.
- Imagine my surprise when it identified it as the Ping Pong virus!
- After tearing it apart, it turned out to be 90% original Ping Pong.
- Someone has taken the Ping Pong Carrier mechanism and modified the
- code that displays the bouncing dot to effect the typographical errors
- reported by Y Radai. I gave the disassembly to John and I believe
- Scan version 33 discriminates between the two viruses. John also just
- gave me a copy of the new Datacrime-2 virus, which is a strange beast.
- The encryption at the front of the virus is very different from the
- 1701/4 encryption method. Included in the decryption code is a
- routine to prevent looking at the code through debug, Codeview or
- other single step utility. I'll report back when I've ripped the
- beast apart, meanwhile I gave John sufficient info to update ViruScan
- so it can identify it (I think it's also included in V33).
-
- Alan
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 05 Aug 89 17:06:52 -0700
- From: portal!cup.portal.com!Alan_J_Roberts@Sun.COM
- Subject: Israeli Boot Virus (PC)
-
- This is a forward from John McAfee:
- ============================================================================
-
- Mr Radai rightly points out that there are two boot viruses that
- have emanated from Israel. He suggests that we call the first one
- (the one that causes letters to fall from the screen) the "Swap"
- virus, since the message - 'SWAP Virus FAT12' appears in the modified
- boot record. I would heartily agree, except that the version I have
- does not display such a message. The thirty byte modification to the
- boot record (in my copy), is program code - no data characters at all.
- I don't know now whether we are talking about different viruses
- (although both allegedly originated with Mr. Tal) or whether some
- slight, or major, modification has been made to this virus in its
- travels. In any case, for the meantime, I will leave the VIRUSCAN
- messages alone. The original virus I still call the 'Israeli Boot',
- the new virus I call the 'Typo'. I will change the name to a more
- acceptable name after someone has educated me on this issue.
- Thanks for bearing with me.
-
- John McAfee
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 07 Aug 89 10:39:26 -0400
- From: Joe McMahon <XRJDM@SCFVM>
- Subject: nFLU Virus & Disinfectant (Mac)
-
- Disinfectant 1.2 has been added to the automatic file distribution for
- those who are AFD'd to the VIRUSREM package at SCFVM. The file should
- be distributed this evening.
-
- --- Joe M.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 07 Aug 00 19:89:51 +0000
- From: utoday!greenber@uunet.uu.net
- Subject: FLU_SHOT+ V1.6 and Boot Blocks (PC)
-
- There is a minor bug in FLU_SHOT+, V1.6, that will (depending upon the
- version of DOS used) ocasionally trigger the Boot Block Has Changed
- Message. Ends up I forgot to zero out the top half of a register.
-
- Fixed in V1.7. (The beta's all went out today, by the way...thanks
- for your patience!)
-
- Some people have recently started telling me about V1.6 telling them the
- boot has changed (under DOS 4.0) and (when they investigate it) they
- find that to be true. No firsthand verification yet, though...
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of VIRUS-L Digest
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