Hacker Chronicles 2/HACKER2.BIN/VIRUSL3/VIRUSL3.59

Text File | 1994-07-17 | 14.1 KB | 342 lines

VIRUS-L Digest   Friday, 16 Mar 1990    Volume 3 : Issue 59

Today's Topics:

SCANRES and TOPS (PC)
Re: New Trojan Horse ??? (Mac)
Re: virus symptoms (Amiga)
Serching for Information on Unix-virus
vtrack-l
RE: VIRUS DETECTION SOFTWARE
Virus-L Index of V3 #1 to #57 (Misc & general)
Re: Scanning MAC diskettes on a PC
Policies and Strategies for Viruses
PCDATA anti-virus toolkit - FREE (PC)

VIRUS-L is a moderated, digested mail forum for discussing computer
virus issues; comp.virus is a non-digested Usenet counterpart.
Discussions are not limited to any one hardware/software platform -
diversity is welcomed.  Contributions should be relevant, concise,
polite, etc.  Please sign submissions with your real name.  Send
contributions to [e-mail] (that's equivalent to
LEHIIBM1.BITNET for BITNET folks).  Information on accessing
anti-virus, documentation, and back-issue archives is distributed
periodically on the list.  Administrative mail (comments, suggestions,
and so forth) should be sent to me at: [e-mail].

   Ken van Wyk

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

From:    Chuck Hellier <[e-mail]>
Subject: SCANRES and TOPS (PC)

Greetings,

Is anyone using SCANRES with PC TOPS v. 2.1?

I am a network systems analyst for the University of Southern
California.  We have a large variety of MicroComputer networks on
campus (Novell and AppleTalk, to name a few).  TOPS is not very
prevalent.

The problem: whenever SCANRES is loaded before TOPS, something happens
to the DOS file control system.  After the TOPS kernel has loaded and
resources have been published, files will not open normally:
 1) WordPerfect complains about "insufficient FILES=" in config.sys
 2) EDLIN complains that there are too many files open and
 3) "TYPE [filename]" returns file not found!  I can see [filename] in
    the directory!

This is the configuration of the machine:
 HARDWARE     : PC Clone, Turbo; 640K RAM ; TOPS Flashcard
 OS             : MS DOS 3.21
 CONFIG.SYS   : FILES=20
                    BUFFERS=8
 AUTOEXEC.BAT : SCANRES
                    ECHO OFF
                    PROMPT $P$G
                    PATH=C:\;C:\TOPS
                    ATALK.EXE
                    PSTACK.EXE
                    TOPSTALK.EXE
                    TOPSKRNL.EXE
                    TOPS.EXE /q STATION elizabeth
                    TOPS.EXE /q PUBLISH C:\ as driveC /RW

When SCANRES is moved to the end of AUTOEXEC.BAT, everything works
fine- WP launches OK, EDLIN works OK, and TYPE [filename] does what
it's supposed to.  However, this is only a trivial solution to the
problem (if someone boots that machine with infected diskette, which
infects ATALK or TOPSTALK or TOPS {but not the system files :-)}, and
then reboots from C:, the solution fails).

Notes: I have not yet tried moving SCANRES down AUTOEXEC.BAT line by line to
find the culprit (not enough time and it still would be a trivial solution).
I have tried all versions of SCANRES (v.39 - v.59) with the same results.

Does anyone know why loading SCANRES before TOPS would cause this
problem?
Does anyone use SCANRES and TOPS?
Can anyone from Sun (TOPS) or McAfee shed some light?

Note: I have not seen this problem occur in any environment other than
TOPS - DOS, Novell, D-Link, LANSmart, PC-NFS, AppleShare PC, 3Com.

- --
Chuck Hellier ([e-mail])              For you are young and life
PC Systems Programmer                                       is long and there i
\cs time
University of Southern California                 to kill today.

------------------------------

Date:    16 Mar 90 07:11:27 +0000
From:    milano![e-mail] (Werner Uhrig)
Subject: Re: New Trojan Horse ??? (Mac)

[Michael Hope <[e-mail]> asks about the recent trojans]

I spoke just tonight with one of the persons involved in catching and
reporting the trojans (there were 3 total reported so far, each
nastier than the previous) - and whereas you may be able to recover
some files with one or the other recovery program, you cannot count on
that in all cases.

no spreading of the trojans outside of the Canadian city has been
reported yet (other than to the anti-viral software developers group
of which I am member) and all kind of Canadian and US-police is trying
to track down the perpetrators and a price has been put out on their
scalp(s) ...(yep, folks, you can have my oldest son - or $10)

I know only of one case where actual damage was done to a system (and
that was carelesness or even stupidity, actually, after having been
warned that the program was a trojan)

if anyone knows of other sightings or other damage, please let me know.

                              ---Werner

- --------------------------> please send REPLIES to <------------------------
INTERNET:                     [e-mail]
               or: [e-mail]     (Internet # 128.83.144.1)
UUCP:     ...<well-connected-site>!cs.utexas.edu!werner

------------------------------

Date:    Thu, 15 Mar 90 16:14:57 +0000
From:    [e-mail] (Spenser Aden)
Subject: Re: virus symptoms (Amiga)

[e-mail] (Ken Bell) writes:
>>   I have a game called Hybris. After playing this for a while, the
>>   screen will "fuzz", what I mean is that the graphics seem to get
>>   confused and all I see is one big blur on the screen. I have
>>   tried this with two independent disks of the game (ie: I borrowed
>>   them from two different people). This may or may not have anything
>>   to do with the blanking.

Are you running an A1000 with 256K RAM?  The symptoms you're
describing sound a lot like what happens when code was written under
the assumption that the machine would have 512K of chip RAM, and when
it tries to use memory that it doesn't have, the screen "freaks out",
and the graphics are sometimes sort-of distinguishable, but only
because you know what it should look like.

This may not be a virus.  Try the same software on an A500 or A2000
(but cold-boot the machine, and don't put any other disks in, and
power-down afterward ... just in case!  Try to avoid testing on a
system with a hard drive attached.)

- -Spenser
- --
S. Spenser Aden   [phone] |
Ferranti International Controls  |
[e-mail]              | "And you were just ... a face in the crowd."
Only my opinions, not Ferranti's.|       -Tom Petty

------------------------------

Date:    Fri, 16 Mar 90 10:21:36 -0500
From:    [e-mail] (Christian Lohmann)
Subject: Serching for Information on Unix-virus

Hi- I'm new on this list.  Has anyone some informations about
Unix-virus (Sun).  I know that there are all the old logs of this
list, but that's too much to get this files by net.
Thanx -Christian

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 13 Mar 90 16:09:53 -0500
From:    woodb!scsmo1![e-mail]
Subject: vtrack-l

I would be interested in a list for reporting known locations of virii
and a small database for tracking them.

I would like to see an entry like:

VIRUS:20tricks
LOCATION:University of DOOM
CITY:Blousville
STATE/COUNTRY:new africa
LONGITUDE:xxx
LATITUDE:xxx
DATE: 10/25/90

- --
 DON INGLI-United States Department of Agriculture - Soil Conservation Service
 INTERNET: scsmo1![e-mail]    PHONEnet: 314!875!5344
 UUCP(short): uunet!scsmo1!don        UUCP(long): uunet!mimsy!woodb!scsmo1!don
              These are my opinions. I represent myself.
   Who do you think you are, Bjorn Nitmo?  David Letterman '90 Catch Phrase

------------------------------

Date:    Thu, 15 Mar 90 21:15:00 -0800
From:    [e-mail] (JAMES E. MOLINI)
Subject: RE: VIRUS DETECTION SOFTWARE

Another unnamed user ([e-mail]) writes:

> We need advise please.

> We have about 70 DOS machines here, some controlled by individuals,
> some shared by several staff, and some available to the public.
> We would like to have a virus detection capability-- a program
> which would be housed in our micro support unit and only used
> as part of trouble-shooting.
> We would like to use SCAN, but the cost for one copy is the same
> as the cost for 70 in our institutional setting ($1475).
> Questions: 1. is the above a reasonable approach
>            2. what software would VIRUS-L readers suggest

You bring up an interesting point.  How does someone do virus
detection on a shoestring without violating copyrights, or shareware
agreements?

There happens to be an excellent little public domain program written
by Len Levine called FILETEST that performs CRC's on files in your
system.  I believe that FILETEST, or some similar public domain
program is an excellent product to put on all the PC's in the lab.  It
will (in most cases) DETECT an infection.  But then you will need
something like VIRUSCAN to IDENTIFY what that potential infection is.
Nevertheless, you have reduced the investment you need to make in the
identification utility since you only need it when something is
flagged by the public domain program on one of the machines.  This,
however, assumes that you have fairly static executable configurations
(no major code development, etc.) on the machines you are supporting.

I will discuss this approach in greater detail if there is interest on
the board.

Jim Molini

------------------------------

Date:    Fri, 16 Mar 90 08:23:20 +0000
From:    Anthony Appleyard <[e-mail]>
Subject: Virus-L Index of V3 #1 to #57 (Misc & general)

SUBJECT                                                               ISSUE

<Anti-Viral Archives for all computers>
Latest copy                                                               5
Introduction to anti-viral archives                                      28
Latest copy  (January 31, 1990)                                          28
Virus Catalog February 1990 Edition                                      51
Dr. Brunnstein's [Virus catalog updated]                                 52
anti-viral archive sites for various computers                  whole of 53

[Ed. As with the other two (PC and Mac) index files, the remainder of
this one is available via anonymous FTP from cert.sei.cmu.edu.]

------------------------------

Date:    16 Mar 90 12:25:16 +0000
From:    [e-mail] (Woody Baker @ Eagle Signal)
Subject: Re: Scanning MAC diskettes on a PC

[e-mail] (Brian Piersel) writes:
> On Tue, 06 Mar 90 01:12:47 -0500 Howard Haruo Fukuda said:
> >[e-mail] (Peter Jones) writes:
> >I don't think a PC equiped with a 3.5" drive can read a Mac formatted
> >disk.  A Mac formats the disk to 800K by using a variable speed
> >controller which puts more data on the outer rings of the disk than on
> >the inner ones.  I'm not sure if it's possible to override the ROM on a
> I've tried to read an 800K CP/M disk (formatted on a C-128) on a PC,
> and the hardware just isn't capable of doing that. In this case, the
> disks have 10 sectors/track, and PC drives can't read more than 9.  In
> the case of the Mac, with variable speed drives, that sure wouldn't
> work without hardware modifications. No way to change drive speed
> through software.

The other problem, is that the 800K CPM disk is encoded with GRC or something
similar rather than MFM, in it's native mode.  I understand that the CPM
disk is MFM, but I have to experience.
There is a company, in DeKalb Ill, that produces a product called UNIFORM.
Uniform can read and write nearly 200 cpm format disks on a PC.  It alters
drive tables,and installes a virtual drive that can access the cpm disk.
>From that point on, it looks like an msdos disk, you can open files, create
files etc etc on the CPM floppy, and it can be read on a CPM machine afterwards
With the Compaticard II, you can handle any mix of 5 1/4 3 1/2 and 8 1/2
floppies. They also have a neat product called matchmaker that allows the
free reading and writing of Mac disks, andallows full access to them.
The actual name of the company escapes me at the moment, but it is something
like Microware ....

Cheers
Woody

------------------------------

Date:    16 Mar 90 05:06:09 +0000
From:    [e-mail] (Joseph Young)
Subject: Policies and Strategies for Viruses

Hi there ... I'm currently on a working party looking at developing
some overall strategies to ensure the potential danger of viruses is
flagged minimised within our institution. We are looking at what should be
done for both departmental and publically accessible (say student labs
and library) equipment. As a starting point, I thought it might be
worthwhile to see if other institutions had developed some policies
and procedures along this line. At this stage we're concentrating on
PCs (we mainly have IBM PC compatibles and Macintoshes) but any info
would be greatly appreciated.

I'm new to this group so I hope I'm not asking for something that has
been dealt with to death. On the other hand, if there's enough
interest I'm very willing to summarise and post on the net.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Joseph Young,
ACSnet: axiom.maths.uq.oz

------------------------------

Date:    Fri, 16 Mar 90 14:59:17 -0500
From:    [e-mail] (Emily H. Lonsford)
Subject: PCDATA anti-virus toolkit - FREE (PC)

In the February 13 issue of PC Magazine, there's an article by Wolfgang Stiller
which describes a toolkit that can be used to detect data modification/damage
on a PC/DOS machine.  The toolkit, PCDATA, can be downloaded from Compuserve.

The toolkit is pretty extensive; for example, there's a utility
to calculate two different cksums on files, another to do file compares and
still a third to check the DOS boot sectors and partition tables.

But the best part is, it's free.

For more information, see p. 263 of the Feb. 13 1990 issue of PC Magazine.
*        Emily H. Lonsford
*        MITRE - Houston W123  [phone]

------------------------------

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