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MacFormat España 19
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Disinfectant
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Disinfectant.rsrc
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STR#_215.txt
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1995-04-07
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### File infected by an unknown strain of WDEF
following message in the report:
been reported. If an unknown strain is detected, Disinfectant places the
also detect and repair other strains which may exist but have not yet
In addition to the two known strains of the WDEF virus, Disinfectant will
you try to repair using MultiFinder, you will get an error message.
files are always “busy,” and Disinfectant is not able to repair them. If
must use Finder instead of MultiFinder. Under MultiFinder, the Desktop
When using Disinfectant to repair WDEF infections under System 6, you
is cause for concern.
operating system. Any WDEF resource in a Finder Desktop file, however,
Finder Desktop files. WDEF resources are a normal part of the Macintosh
resources, do not be alarmed if you find them in files other than the
If you use ResEdit, VirusDetective, or some other tool to search for WDEF
from a TOPS client to a TOPS server.
infected volume. It does not appear, however, that the virus can spread
published volume’s Desktop file is infected and the client mounts the
The WDEF virus can spread from a TOPS server to a TOPS client if a
server to other Macs on the network, however.
it exists. It does not appear that the virus can spread from an AppleShare
on server root directories. We also recommend deleting the Desktop file if
reason, administrators should never grant the “make changes” privilege
performance on the network will be very severely degraded. For this
the Desktop file on the server. If a server Desktop file becomes infected,
directory on the server, then any infected user of the server can infect
administrator has granted the “make changes” privilege to the root
file, many servers have an unused copy of this file. If the AppleShare
Even though AppleShare servers do not use the normal Finder Desktop
System 7.
Disinfectant. This is also the only way to get rid of a WDEF infection under
of a WDEF infection by simply rebuilding the Desktop file than it is to use
See the “Problem Clinic” section for details. It is often easier to get rid
You can remove a WDEF infection from a disk by rebuilding the desktop.
proper functioning of your Macintosh.
that the errors in the virus can cause almost any kind of problem with the
font style. Many other symptoms have also been reported and it appears
font styles. In particular, it often causes problems with the “outline”
damage disks. The virus also causes problems with the proper display of
causes other Macs to crash much more frequently than usual and it can
insertion of an infected floppy (the IIci and later models). The virus also
virus causes newer Mac models to crash almost immediately after
contains errors which can cause very serious problems. In particular, the
Although the virus does not intentionally try to do any damage, WDEF
whereas WDEF A does not beep.
difference is that WDEF B beeps every time it infects a new Desktop file,
The WDEF A and WDEF B strains are very similar. The only significant
Fortunately, System 7 is completely immune to the WDEF virus.
application for the virus to spread.
WDEF spreads from disk to disk very rapidly. It is not necessary to run an
through the sharing and distribution of disks (usually floppy disks.)
viruses, it is not spread through the sharing of applications, but rather
applications, document files, or other system files. Unlike the other
under System 6 contains one of these files. WDEF does not infect
few exceptions, every Macintosh disk (hard drives and floppies) used
WDEF only infects the invisible “Desktop” files used by the Finder. With a
and “WDEF B.”
is very widespread. We know of two strains, which we call “WDEF A”
has also been reported at many other locations, and we now know that it
one of our labs at Northwestern University. Since the initial discovery, it
The WDEF virus was first discovered in December, 1989 in Belgium and in
xThe WDEF Virus