Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!ginosko!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!dlyons
From: dlyons@Apple.COM (David Lyons)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Resource Forks? (viruses)
Message-ID: <35613@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 13 Oct 89 18:19:10 GMT
References: <8910101231.AA13476@trout.nosc.mil>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 22

In article <8910101231.AA13476@trout.nosc.mil> rlw@pro-embassy.UUCP (Ron Wilson) writes:
>Network Comment: to #223 by obsolete!dlyons%apple.com
>
>In Call-APPLE Quarterly, I read that it is possible to put executable
>code in the resource fork of a file.

Yes, and it's also possible to put executable code in the DATA fork of a file,
or in the boot blocks, or in places on the disk that are currently unused, or
whatever.

The trick in *all* cases is to arrange for the code to actually *be executed*.
Having resource forks does not help virus writers a whole lot.  The system does
not automatically execute code in resource forks just because it's there.
-- 

 --Dave Lyons, Apple Computer, Inc.          |   DAL Systems
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   My opinions are my own, not Apple's.