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- VIRUS-L Digest Friday, 14 Apr 1989 Volume 2 : Issue 89
-
- Today's Topics:
- RE: Having hardware check writes to disk.
- re: More on the Alameda Virus (PC)
- Anti-viral archive at SCFVM (Mac)
- Re: More on Yale virus (PC)
- re: general question
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 13 Apr 89 18:53 EST
- From: Go Reds! <KUMMER@XAVIER.BITNET>
- Subject: RE: Having hardware check writes to disk.
-
- The suggested solution of having hardware question writes to disk
- does not seem to be feasible. I work a lot with VAX Pascal and it is
- common for me to write to files a lot in programs. This would mean I
- would have to sit there and ok every write, highly inefficent. A
- better way would be to question writes to the operating system (I
- believe FluShot.com does this) since the way to make a virus most
- effective seems to me to be by infecting the operating system, thus
- changing what the run command does, thus enabling the virus to spread.
- Well, that's all I've got to add to this.
-
- Tom Kummer
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 14 April 1989, 09:20:02 EDT
- From: David M. Chess <CHESS@YKTVMV.BITNET>
- Subject: re: More on the Alameda Virus (PC)
-
- That does sound very much like the sample that I got from Yale, which
- I'm pretty sure is the same one that Loren got from Yale, and so is
- presumably the one that J.M. says is identical to the Alameda/Merrit.
- (Whew!) Presumably the "first free sector" in the article was a case
- of slight oversimplification for the sake of making it fit into the
- table? DC
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 14 Apr 89 10:01:00 EDT
- From: Joe McMahon <XRJDM@SCFVM.BITNET>
- Subject: Anti-viral archive at SCFVM (Mac)
-
- Hello all. We are going to be reorganizing the anti-virals archive
- here at SCFVM in the next week or so, to coincide with the rerelease
- of my anti-viral doc stack (version 2.0). I will be posting details
- when we've finalized them; I will probably be removing anything which
- is no longer supported (such as Interferon - since Bob Woodhead is
- concentrating on Virex now), or which has been outmoded.
-
- --- Joe M.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 14 Apr 89 13:26:12 EDT
- From: "Conrad Jacoby (DC)" <JACOBY@YALEVM.BITNET>
- Subject: Re: More on Yale virus (PC)
-
- HI there!!
-
- As one of the original discoverers of the Yale virus this summer,
- I wish to make one comment in regards to a recent posting (Virus-L, v2
- #88, last posting) that claimed that Almeda virus=Yale. In whoever's
- posting of thier summary, there was a statement that this virus did
- not work in 80286 machines because of different memory addresses and
- the like. If this is indeed true, than there is no way that the
- Almeda virus and the Yale virus can be the same creatures. All our
- public domain machines are IBM ATs, and the virus was transmitted
- quite successfully through any number of them. Indeed, I have no
- experience with the virus except on '286 machines.
-
- Could someone more knowledgeable about viruses and internal
- differences between 8088 and 80286 machines comment on this?
-
- - -----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Conrad J. Jacoby P.O. Box 3805 Yale Station
- Yale University New Haven, CT 06520
- Sterling Memorial Library (203) 436-1402
- "Generalist at Large" JACOBY@YaleVM.BITNET
- @YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu
- - -----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 14 Apr 89 14:07:35 EST
- From: Neil Goldman <NG44SPEL@MIAMIU.BITNET>
- Subject: re: general question
-
- Bruce Ide suggests that the user could confirm all disk writes.
-
- Three immediate problems.
-
- 1. For every disk write, it would be a pain in the #&*%. Besides,
- users would get very complacent and OK everything without analyzing
- what is, should, and should not be written just before the little red
- light goes on.
-
- 2. Inexperienced users would not understand when they should confirm a
- write to begin with.
-
- 3. A virus could:
- a) simulate a "save" so the hardware thinks it is OK
- b) wait for a legitimate save to occur and propagate during that
- operation.
-
- I'm sure there are many other arguments against this methodology as
- well. But, Bruce, the more we work on the problem, the closer we get
- to a (if this is possible) a solution. So keep those ideas coming!
-
- ***************************************************************
- *Neil A. Goldman NG44SPEL@MIAMIU.BITNET*
- * *
- * Replies, Concerns, Disagreements, and Flames expected *
- * Mastercard, Visa, and American Express not accepted *
- ***************************************************************
- Acknowledge-To: <NG44SPEL@MIAMIU>
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of VIRUS-L Digest
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