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- From: Kenneth R. van Wyk (The Moderator) <krvw@CERT.SEI.CMU.EDU>
- Errors-To: krvw@CERT.SEI.CMU.EDU
- To: VIRUS-L@IBM1.CC.LEHIGH.EDU
- Path: cert.sei.cmu.edu!krvw
- Subject: VIRUS-L Digest V4 #84
- Reply-To: VIRUS-L@IBM1.CC.LEHIGH.EDU
- --------
- VIRUS-L Digest Thursday, 16 May 1991 Volume 4 : Issue 84
-
- Today's Topics:
-
- Re: PC-security/password
- re: The Shape of the World (PC)
- PKWare ZIP -AV cracked (PC)
- Partition Table Viruses (PC)
- Virus destroys data at Oxford Univ (England)
- VIRUSSUM format
- New Boot Infector (PC)
- RM_NOINT Virus Remover (PC)
- New INNOC (Version 5) (PC)
- Revised Product Test - - VIREX-PC, version 1.20 (PC)
- Review of Eliminator (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 VIRUS-L@IBM1.CC.LEHIGH.EDU (that's equivalent to
- VIRUS-L at LEHIIBM1 for you 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: krvw@CERT.SEI.CMU.EDU.
-
- Ken van Wyk
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 11 May 91 09:17:00 -0400
- From: "Ignorance HATES Knowledge..........!!" <ACSMARTIN@EKU.BITNET>
- Subject: Re: PC-security/password
-
- Resent-From: "A. Andrew Brennan" <BRENNAAA@DUVM.BITNET>
-
- Thought you might be interested in seeing this - don't know if
- you are on this list ...
-
- A. Andrew Brennan
-
- {you don't know me from Adam - but he didn't have a belly button ... }
-
- - ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
-
- I agree that Disk Manager PC is a fantastic product. It uses a boot
- block protetcion scheme which doesn't let the user bypass it when they
- boot with a floppy disk. It also has some interesting side effects
- that may be worth noting --- since this program doesn't allow
- modifications to the boot-block of a hard disk -- it tends to inhibit
- the reproduction of boot-block type viruses. This program is NOT
- marketed by mentioning this -- it simply seems to be an artifact of
- the program. I attempted to infect a DMPC protected disk with a LIVE
- boot block virus (of the stealth variety) and it just didn't work.
-
- Hope that helps a bit!
-
- Bob Martin -- Eastern KY U -- Academic Computing
- Bitnet: acsmartin@eku
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 15 May 91 17:12:49 -0400
- From: padgett%tccslr.dnet@mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson)
- Subject: re: The Shape of the World (PC)
-
- >From: microsoft!c-rossgr@uunet.uu.net
-
- >Remember that we can't even get the user community (the folks who
- >spend their hard earned money to buy my products!) to make backups to
- >protect themselves.
-
- Partly our fault: we have never taught good hygene to people. I
- generally back up my data files as they are created. Since my program
- disk is fixed, it is backed up as part of my weekly defrag. True, most
- people who have not had losses do not understand backing up - one
- reason why we are looking at things like Bernoulli Transportables as
- part of out weekly maintenance and CD-ROMS for standardised software,
- and have an annual computer security briefing that emphasizes such
- things as backups & how to recognize unusual behaviour.
-
- >Maximal Protection! That's what the market seems to clamour for.
-
- Because part of the education we have failed to provide is what the
- risks really are. My opinion is that a good regimen (screening &
- briefings) plus an integrity routine that will detect anomalies is
- what the general population needs. Detecting intrusion immediately
- reduces risks to the point that even quarterly updates (as a scanner
- would require) cannot be justified. A linited number of scanners for
- the techs and administrators are justifiable both from a maintenance
- and a training standpoint.
-
- For large corporations, the cost of a site license can be lost in the
- noise compared to the cost of trying to administer several thousand
- updates (5000 PCs x 10 minutes per update x 4 times per year = 1 2/3
- manyears not to mention the distribution nightmare). Much easier to
- take a one-time installation hit plus automatic installation at the
- warehouse as part of the distribution process.
-
- >And the marketing dudes I work with closely at Microcom tell me what
- >we can lose a site license because of and where our strong points are:
-
- So be the first to offer BIOS level checking & authenticated paths as
- part of the boot process.
-
- >So, when one of our competitors says "Yes, but do you want to risk
- >even the slightest chance of getting infected with this virus if it
- >escapes into the wild.", my marketing can respond "Ha! We already
- >protect you against that nasty virus!".
-
- How about "There are only x ways a virus can get into a system, if it
- is a virus we have seen, we will identify it. If it is something else,
- we will detect the change and warn the user immediately. Nothing can
- identify an unknown virus, but its activity can be detected." Of
- course the biggest problem is elimination of false positives but a
- dollup of AI should permit the program to learn who is permitted to do
- odd things.
-
- In my experience, most corporate environments are stable enough to
- make the learning period short. In the last year we installed such a
- package on many thousands of PCs with nearly every known program and
- every OS from DOS 2.x to beta versions of DOS 5 and the major problems
- (development machines, Zeniths writing to boot sectors, word processor
- quirks) were annoying but relatively easy to solve. Today, when a user
- gets a warning screen, it is usually a virus or other "anomaly" that
- we needed to know about anyway.
-
- As far as what the user wants, quantum economics applies. There are
- certain things that are automatic disqualifiers: noticably degraded
- performance, insufficient free memory to run programs, excessive false
- alarms, failure to detect well known viruses. Only once these step
- functions are satisfied will relative merits/demerits such as cost
- (no. 1), ease of installation, documentation, & support come into play
- on a linear decision basis.
-
- Today, the sheer diversity of anti-viral products demonstrates that,
- as in pointing devices and user interfaces, the One True Answer has
- yet to be found.
-
- Warmly,
- Padgett
-
- everything herein my own opinion & may or may not have any relation to
- reality
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 15 May 91 17:13:00 -0600
- From: Keith Petersen <w8sdz@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL>
- Subject: PKWare ZIP -AV cracked (PC)
-
- I have received word from a reliable source that there is now a PKWare
- ZIP authentication varification (-AV) cracker going around called
- MAKEAV. It will generate registration numbers so that people can
- create their own serialized ZIPs.
-
- MAKEAV was apparently used to make the bogus SCANV78.ZIP which was
- warned about in a recent posting by McAfee Associates.
-
- PKWare has been notified.
-
- Keith
- - - - -
- Keith Petersen
- Maintainer of SIMTEL20's MSDOS, MISC and CP/M archives - [192.88.110.20]
- Internet: w8sdz@WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil or w8sdz@vela.acs.oakland.edu
- Uucp: uunet!wsmr-simtel20.army.mil!w8sdz BITNET: w8sdz@OAKLAND
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 15 May 91 21:39:50 -0230
- From: "Anthony H. Galway" <tony4@garfield.cs.mun.ca>
- Subject: Partition Table Viruses (PC)
-
- Our PC labs have been recently become victim of several
- partition table viruses, namely Bloody!, Azusa and Stoned. I find
- that McAfee's CLEAN works well on the STONED allowing it to clean the
- partition table almost all the time (rarely, though it happens, it
- seems to be to far gone and I end up doing a format), but the BLOODY!
- virus seems to be a bit more advanced more often than not the CLEAN
- program claims that it can not safely remove the virus from the
- partition table ... and so ....format C:!
-
- Now am I the absolute soul of niavete by taking this action,
- or am I doing the only thing possibly? Is there any better anti-viral
- around that can handle partition table problems? If not is there any
- way to better protect ourselves.
-
- FYI: We use the latest version of Scan, Vshield, and Clean taken
- from Simtel (we have the site licence), plus we are not
- adverse to getting a better package commercially if it will
- satisfactorally protect us.
-
- P.S. Where can I get a comprehensive list of the effects and symptoms
- of known viruses?
-
- I appreciate any help.
-
- - --
- Anthony H Galway |\_/| I tried to think up something either
- tony4@garfield.cs.mun.ca (` ') profound or witty to put here ......
- tony@piglet.engr.mun.ca |"| I couldn't.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 16 May 91 09:09:52 +0100
- From: Anthony Appleyard <XPUM04@prime-a.central-services.umist.ac.uk>
- Subject: Virus destroys data at Oxford Univ (England)
-
- (from Daily Telegraph (UK national newspaper), Wed 15 May 1991)
- [University computer virus wipes out studies]
- The work of dozens of students and researchers at Oxford University has
- been destroyed by a computer virus. The virus was brought into the
- university on a contaminated floppy disk and unwittingly passed on from
- terminal to terminal. As a result, thousands of hours' work were lost,
- including several enties theses. The virus had been designed in Spain as a
- protest against telephone charges. Once fed into a computer's memory, it
- lay unnoticed, growing each time the machine was switched on. On the 400th
- occasion, it came to life, garbling everything stored in the computer and
- filled the screen with a message in Spanish saying "Lower tariffs, more
- service". Thames Valley police Fraud Squad are to link up with Spanish
- police to try to trace the culprits, although Det Sgt Gerald Causer said it
- was unlikely that any charges could be brought. "Students and researchers
- move from computer to computer within the university and unwittingly spread
- the virus. This is a particularly nasty one and the university is the first
- place in Britain where it has been discovered." he said.
- {A.Appleyard} (email: APPLEYARD@UK.AC.UMIST), Thu, 16 May 91 09:00:08 BST
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 16 May 91 16:09:14 +0000
- From: kuhnle@ait.physik.uni-tuebingen.de (Volkmar Kuhnle)
- Subject: VIRUSSUM format
-
- For about half a year, I regularly acquired the new VIRUSSUM.DOC by
- Patricia Hoffman. Compliments to Mrs. Hoffman for her excellent and
- detailed work!
-
- But over the months al lot of new viruses (and strains of existing ones)
- have been uncovered, so that VIRUSSUM.DOC grew in size. Since the
- current version is about more than 500 K in length, is is getting
- harder and harder to find informations about a special virus in
- a file of this size, since I have to use a normal editor.
-
- I came to the conclusion that an ASCII file is not appropriate for the
- distribution of so much data. Therefore I would suggest to supply
- future versions as DBF files (dbase format). Database programs which
- are able to read DBF files are very common in the PC world. And it
- would be much easier to find information about a virus quick in
- an DBF file than in an ASCII file.
-
- Any suggestions? Please e-amil them to this list, because I want to
- start a dioscussion about the distribution of virus information.
-
- Volkmar Kuhnle
- kuhnle@aitxu2.ait.physik.uni-tuebingen.de
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 16 May 91 02:55:07 -0400
- From: MMCCUNE@sctnve.BITNET
- Subject: New Boot Infector (PC)
-
- Here is a new boot infector. I have a removal utility called NO_NOINT
- that remvoes it. It is will be available on most FTP sites soon. I
- have also updated my INNOC utility to INNOC5 to handle this new virus.
- ...<MM>.
-
- Noint Virus
- -----------
- (The Furtive Stoned Virus)
-
-
- The Noint Virus was reported by Todd Fisher of Cleveland, OH, in May
- of 1991. This is a furtive Boot Sector infector capable of infecting
- Hard disks as well as diskettes. It was reported that Noint can
- infect Novell networks. The action of Noint is reminiscent of that
- of the Stoned virus. (Stoned is the most prevalent Boot-sector virus
- in the US). Since Noint has, in addition, the ability to hide itself
- -which the Stoned does not- it's possible that Noint may become even
- more widespread than the Stoned in time.
-
- The virus spreads ONLY by booting (or attempted booting) from an
- infected disk(ette). If an infected diskette is left in a clean
- machine, and the machine turned off without removing the disk, the
- next time the computer is turned on, the virus will become RAM-
- resident as soon as the machine reads and executes the Boot sector
- of the diskette in Drive A:, even though a "Non-System Disk or Disk
- Error" is issued. By the time the operator removes the infected
- diskette and presses any key to continue booting, the virus has
- already infected the hard disk. It remains active in RAM, waiting
- for the next diskette to be inserted. From then on, every time
- the computer is booted from the hard disk, the virus will become
- TSR and continue infecting new diskettes. A simple dir read of a
- diskette is sufficient to infected it. Noint does not infect files.
-
- Like the Stoned, the virus moves a diskette's original Boot Sector
- to Track 1, Sector 3 and and writes itself in the Boot Sector's
- place. In the case of hard disks, it's the Partition Table that
- gets displaced to Track 0, Sector 7; the virus then writes itself
- into its place.
-
- If an infected system is booted from a clean, non-infected system
- diskette, however, the virus will not be active. Files may then be
- copied and disks accessed without fear of infection. This is the
- approach to use when cleaning up an infected system.
-
- The virus checks diskettes to see whether they are already infected
- by itself. If so, it doesn't try to infect them again. This feature
- has been used to develop an immunization program that effectively
- fools the virus into thinking that the immunized diskette is already
- infected, thus preventing infection. The program is included. It will
- immunize fresh diskettes and clean up infected ones, as long as the
- process is carried out on a clean system.
-
- A separate utility is provided to clean up infected hard disks. This
- utility has been tested on DOS systems only. Read the accompanying
- DOC files. Additional work to allow cleaning up the virus in Novell
- systems without lengthy reformatting and reinstallation needs to be
- done.
-
- No manipulation tasks (damaging or otherwise) have been detected.
- However, since the virus stashes away the original Boot Sector of
- infected diskettes to the end of the Directory table, some diskette
- directory entries may be corrupted or overwritten. This may give the
- effect of displaying "unusual" filenames when a dir of the diskette
- is listed.
-
- There are two major differences between the action of the Stoned and
- that of Noint: Noint doesn't use any BIOS calls (INT calls) as such.
- (thus: "No-Int"). Instead, it calls Int 13 by its direct address to do
- all reading/writing to disk. Therefore, while the Noint virus will
- probably work on most IBM-compatible machines, it may not be able to
- run on all hardware.
-
- The second difference between Noint and the Stoned is that Noint is a
- furtive ("stealth") infector, while the Stoned is not. It hides its
- code on disk as long as it's present in memory. Again, this is
- accomplished by means of a direct JMP to Int 13 code, causing a
- redirection. If the Boot Sector/Partition Table are examined while
- the Noint virus is in memory, the virus will not allow its code to be
- visualized, will redirect the Read and display instead the original
- Boot Sector which it has stashed away. This furtiveness works on some
- machines but not on all.
-
- A suitable search string for the Noint virus is:
- -------------
-
- FF 2E 0C 01 00 53 51 52 56 57 06 BE 02 00 B8 01 02 B9
- 01 00 BB 00 02 0E 07 32 F6 9C 2E FF 1E 0C 01 73 0F 33
-
- The above string contains an instance of bypassing a DOS Int call, as
- well as part of the read-redirection routine, so it should be typical
- of this virus and not cause false alarms. This string should be found
- in all Boot Sectors/Partition Tables of disks infected by it. If
- desired, either the upper or lower half only of the above string may
- be used with fair reliability to detect the virus. The string may
- be used with Norton Utilities, or with any of the virus scanners that
- accept replaceable, user-provided search strings, such as IBM's VIRSCAN.
- The characters may need to be reformatted or re-spaced to comply with
- the format requirements of each scanner.
-
- - ------------------------------------------------------------------
- This file and the attached utilities are provided
- as a public service by:
-
- CompuService Norwalk
- P.O. Box 385
- Norwalk, CT 06852
- (203) 847-8992
-
- May, 1991
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 16 May 91 03:20:57 -0400
- From: MMCCUNE@sctnve.BITNET
- Subject: RM_NOINT Virus Remover (PC)
-
- [Ed. This program has been sent to the VIRUS-L/comp.virus archives.]
-
- RMNOINT - removes the Noint Virus from Hard drives.
- - ------
-
- - -------------------------------------------------------------------
- This program may be freely used by anyone. If you find the program
- useful, a donation of $5.00 in US funds is requested. My mailing
- address is:
-
- Mike McCune
- 1100 S. Marietta Pky., Box 9007
- Marietta, Ga. USA 30060
- - --------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- This program will remove a newly discovered partition infector. First,
- cold boot (turn the machine off, then on) from a clean, write
- protected diskette. Then type
-
- rmvirus <ENTER>
-
- You should see one of these messages:
-
-
- RMVIRUS messages
- - ----------------
-
- Virus Removed - The virus was found and removed from the partition
- table of the hard disk.
-
- Virus not found - The hard disk is not infected or the virus is in
- memory.
-
- Virus can not - Either the partition record is corrupted or you have
- be removed a new variation of the virus.
-
- Read Error - The program aborted because there was an error read-
- ing the hard disk. It could also be cause by the
- Virus being in memory.
-
- Write Error - The program aborted because there was an error
- writing to the hard disk.
-
- - ------------------- Disclaimer -------------------------
-
- When dealing with viruses, there is always a danger of losing programs
- or data. Thus, I offer no warranty on these programs. They may be
- freely distributed as long as they are not altered in any way. I may
- be reached on the FidoNet Virus Echo, on the Ilink Virus and RIME Data
- Protection Conferences, and on VIRUS-L. I can also be reached on
- as MMCCUNE@SCTNVE (BitNet) or MMCCUNE@SCTNVE.PEACHNET.EDU (InterNet.)
-
- Mike McCune.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 16 May 91 03:22:34 -0400
- From: MMCCUNE@sctnve.BITNET
- Subject: New INNOC (Version 5) (PC)
-
- INNOC5 Boot-Virus Immunizer
- - --------------------------
- (c) Mike McCune 1991 - All rights reserved.
-
- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------
- If you find this program useful, please send $5.00 in US funds to:
-
- Mike McCune
- 1100 S. Marietta Pky., Box 9007
- Marietta, Ga. USA 30060
- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Boot-Sector infectors are among the most prevalent of computer viruses
- in the US. Commercial programs that detect and clean out these viruses
- do not confer any immunity, and the same diskettes can be reinfected
- at a later date by the same virus.
-
- INNOC5 is a general-purpose Boot virus immunizer for diskettes. It will
- not only destroy Boot Sector infectors, but will `inoculate' against some
- of the more common Boot viruses. To use it, copy the program to the hard
- drive of a clean system, insert the desired diskette in Drive A: and type:
-
- innoc <ENTER>
-
- INNOC5 will immediately destroy any Boot infectors present on the diskette
- and will simultaneously immunize it against the following viruses:
-
- Ashar
- Azusa
- Brain
- Disk Killer
- Joshi
- NoInt (A new one discovered in early May 1991)
- Ping-Pong
- Stoned (Including the Swedish variant)
-
- Diskettes immunized by INNOC5 will not be infected by any of the viruses
- against which INNOC5 confers immunity. Such diskettes will be immune to
- infection from the viruses that cause most of Boot infections in the US.
-
- The immunization is achieved by writing special code sequences into the
- Boot Sector. A side-effect of immunization is that immunized diskettes
- can no longer be used as Booting disks. Since most disks are never used
- in that manner, this is not a major problem. If you should need to make
- a diskette bootable again, simply use DOS's SYS.COM (SYS A:.). This,
- however, will destroy the immunization conferred by INNOC5.
-
- INNOC5 issues the following messages:
- - -----------------------------------
-
- Read Error | An error occured while reading from the diskette. Simply
- run the program again. Usually a hardware/media problem.
-
- Write Error | An error occured writing to the diskette. Same as above.
- Try again.
-
- Diskette A: | Any Boot Sector viruses have been disabled, and the diskette
- Innoculated | is now immunized against infection.
-
-
- DISCLAIMER
- ----------
- In order to avoid getting sued, I offer no warranty on this or any
- other program. I do appreciate suggestions, though. I can be reached
- on the ILink and FidoNet virus conferences. I can also be reached
- on the RelayNet DataProtect and Virus-L conferences. My BitNet address
- is MMCCUNE@SCTNVE and my InterNet address is MMCCUNE@SCTNVE.PEACHNET.
- EDU...<MM>.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 15 May 91 12:42:33 -0700
- From: p1@arkham.wimsey.bc.ca (Rob Slade)
- Subject: Revised Product Test - - VIREX-PC, version 1.20 (PC)
-
- cmcdonal@wsmr-emh03.army.mil (Chris McDonald ASQNC-TWS-R-SO) writes:
-
- > part, even though they were under no obligation to do so. In May 1991 I
- > received Version 1.20 directly from Microcom. This was a surprise since I
- > expected to have to pay for any upgrade and because I had not subscribed to
- > their annual update service. A telephone conversation with a Microcom
- > represented confirmed that the vendor had chosen to send out the upgrade to a
- > registered users free of charge. I have no idea how long this will continue.
-
- Coincidentally, today an update disk from Microcom fell through the
- mail slot for me too. The date on the postmark is May 8, 1991.
-
- =============
- Vancouver p1@arkham.wimsey.bc.ca | "If you do buy a
- Institute for Robert_Slade@mtsg.sfu.ca | computer, don't
- Research into (SUZY) INtegrity | turn it on."
- User Canada V7K 2G6 | Richards' 2nd Law
- Security | of Data Security
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 14 May 91 16:26:37 -0700
- From: p1@arkham.wimsey.bc.ca (Rob Slade)
- Subject: Review of Eliminator (PC)
-
- Comparison Review
-
- Company and product:
-
- International Computer Virus Institute
- 1257 Siskiyou Boulevard, Suite 179
- Ashland, OR 97520
- USA
- 503-488-3237
- 503-482-3284
- BBS 503-488-2251
- British Computer Virus Research Centre
- 12 Guildford Street, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 3LS, England
- Tel: 0273-26105
- Joe Hirst
- Eliminator/Virus Monitor/Virus Clean, version V1.17, Oct. 1990, Rel B,
- also Virus Simulation Suite
-
-
- Summary:
-
- Resident and manual virus scanning and disinfection, also demonstration
- virus simulators.
-
- Cost: range from $190 (single copy with updates) to volume $8.50/CPU
- (US)
-
- Rating (1-4, 1 = poor, 4 = very good)
- "Friendliness"
- Installation 2
- Ease of use 3
- Help systems 1
- Compatibility 2
- Company
- Stability
- Support
- Documentation 3
- Hardware required 4
- Performance 3
- Availability
- Local Support
-
- General Description:
-
- Virus Monitor is a resident scanning program which checks disks as
- accessed, and programs when invoked. Virus Clean is a manual scanner
- and disinfector. The programs are suitable for intermediate users in
- the average computing environment.
-
- The suite of virus characteristic simulator programs are interesting,
- and may be useful in boosting attention in virus awareness training.
-
- Comparison of features and specifications
-
-
-
- User Friendliness
-
- Installation
-
- The programs are shipped protected, but on a writable disk. There is no
- installation program, as installation consists merely of copying the
- files to the system they are to be run on. Virus Monitor (VM.COM) is a
- resident checker, and the user is instructed to add it as the first line
- in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, but no direction is given as to how this is to
- be done.
-
- The package comes with a printed manual. There is also a file on disk
- (MANUAL.TXT) which is the same information in softcopy. The disk label
- directs the user to type "ICVI" to get information. Doing this presents
- a menu which offers to list onscreen or print out the manual (as well as
- the documentation for the virus simulators.)
-
- The documentation is brief, but fairly clear aside from the lack of
- installation instructions. There is no discussion of dealing with
- pre-existing infections.
-
- Ease of use
-
- The resident scanner, VM.COM, has no options and, the documentation
- suggests, should be started at boot time. When invoked, it will examine
- memory for viral infections, and then go into the background. (If any
- infection is found, the program will disable it.) As disks are
- accessed, VM will examine the boot sector, and will alert the user to
- known virus code. No other action is taken or suggested, the user is
- merely prompted to "Press any key to continue." If an infected program
- is called, the program will alert the user and refuse to run the file.
-
- The Virus Clean program (VC.COM) accepts command line switches to check
- only boot sectors, check only files, check files with specific
- extensions, check all files, list files checked, pause when the screen
- has filled, output to a file, delete infected files or remove
- infections. The removal option has five sub-options, boot sector only,
- .COM ONLY, .EXE only, all and none. The default settings are stated to
- be to check boot sectors, .COM and .EXE files, not to list checked files
- and to remove only boot sector and .COM infections. (This is suggested
- by the documentation because of the possible overwriting of overlay
- portions of .EXE files.) However, in testing the program did not
- attempt any removal of infections.
-
- When removal is attempted on a write protected disk, the program will
- generate an error message.
-
- The virus simulator programs that come with the disk are amusing, and
- can be useful in demonstrating to users the type of activities that
- viral programs *may* demonstrate. I have found that they stimulate
- great interest in seminars, but must be used with caution so as not to
- suggest that all viral programs demonstrate these, or similar,
- characteristics. (Joe Hirst is to be congratulated on the TSR expertise
- that allows Cascade, Ping-Pong/Italian, Oropax and Yankee Doodle to play
- simultaneously. Note that attempts to run Cascade on 386 systems have
- not been successful.)
-
- Help systems
-
- None provided.
-
- Compatibility
-
- Given the old release date (as supplied), the program finds a
- significant number of common viral programs. Of interest is the fact
- that the program checks for variation in known viral strains, and alerts
- the user to keep a copy for forwarding to the distributor for study.
-
- Company Stability
-
- Unknown.
-
- Company Support
-
- Unknown.
-
- Documentation
-
- The documentation is brief, in terms of program operation, but clear.
- Over two thirds of the documentation is given to a description of the
- operation of the viral programs that the program will detect. This
- section has about the same level of detail as that supplied with FPROT,
- but with fewer viral programs listed.
-
- Hardware Requirements
-
- No special hardware required.
-
- Performance
-
- Although the program does not match the number of viral programs
- detected by some others, the speed of operation ranks with the fastest
- scanners tested.
-
- Local Support
-
- Unknown.
-
- Support Requirements
-
- Although the program is not very complicated, the lack of automated
- installation, the lack of detail in the installation section of the
- documentation, and the command line switches used by VC.COM suggest that
- novice users will need some assistance.
-
- copyright Robert M. Slade, 1991 PCELMNTR.RVW 910514
-
-
- =============
- Vancouver p1@arkham.wimsey.bc.ca | "If you do buy a
- Institute for Robert_Slade@mtsg.sfu.ca | computer, don't
- Research into (SUZY) INtegrity | turn it on."
- User Canada V7K 2G6 | Richards' 2nd Law
- Security | of Data Security
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of VIRUS-L Digest [Volume 4 Issue 84]
- *****************************************
-