Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!tank!eecae!netnews.upenn.edu!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: kelly@uts.amdahl.com (Kelly Goen) Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: Re: 80386 and viruses (PC & UNIX) Message-ID: <0005.8911281214.AA07608@ge.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 27 Nov 89 19:55:29 GMT Sender: Virus Discussion List Lines: 25 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu Actually DOS/MERGE or VPIX is a somewhat cheap way to explore and test viruses compared with the cost of some other environments that are supposedly virus proof ... and you get unix to run along with it!!!what a deal!! actually however you do have to make sure you leave the permissions pretty much as distributed as peter has pointed out... if dos programs are allowed to read and write normally(i.e. DOS) then com and exe infectors can still infect... int 13 and other skul-duggery will be disallowed by the dos under *nix environment (you wont get much in the way of system damage but you can look at the damn things somewhat safely...I have done some experiments as to the various possibilities for propagation and they do seem to be minimal in this environment for general viruses(that does not preclude viruses written to attack through 386 protected mode anomalys or COFF/*nix based viruses....(and no I dont want to start a flame war about whether those are possible or not...I am not speaking theoretically here...)) As to the environment its GREAT!! cheers kelly Kelly Goen CSS Inc. DISCLAIMER: I Dont represent Amdahl Corp or Onsite consulting. Any statements ,opinions or additional data are solely my opinion and mine alone... Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com