Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!polyslo!vlsi3b15!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: WHMurray@DOCKMASTER.ARPA Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: (Hardware) Destructive Virus (Story) Message-ID: <0004.8908281204.AA22127@ge.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 25 Aug 89 11:45:00 GMT Sender: Virus Discussion List Lines: 30 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu >Does anyone on the list have some information about an alleged virus >that caused monitors on either older PCs, Ataris, or Amigas (I forgot which >platform.... The story is apocryphal. Roots are as follows: 1. Anything a computer can be programmed to do, a virus can do. Thus, if a computer can be programmed for behavior that will damage the hardware, then it can be destroyed by a virus. 2. Early IBM PC Monochrome Adapter had a flaw under which a certain set of instructions could interfere with the normal sweep circuit operation, causing camage to the monitor. 3. Based upon this combination of facts, there has been speculation about the possibility of a virus exploiting this, or similar, flaws. Much of it has been in this list. To my knowledge, no such virus has ever been detected. The number of such PCs is vanishingly small but larger than the ones that such a virus might find. Those that exist are so old that a monitor failure would be attributed to old age. A virus would likely go unnoticed. Of course, it is a little silly to build a computer such that it can be programmed to perform hardware damaging behavior. Such damage is likely to occur by error. That is how the flaw in the IBM's was discovered. William Hugh Murray, Fellow, Information System Security, Ernst & Young 2000 National City Center Cleveland, Ohio 44114 21 Locust Avenue, Suite 2D, New Canaan, Connecticut 06840