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From: flaps@dgp.toronto.edu (Alan J Rosenthal)
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: Re: Virus in Text Files
Message-ID: <0015.9004101500.AA09233@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 10 Apr 90 13:27:29 GMT
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cdss!culliton@uunet.UU.NET (Tom Culliton) writes:
>How many times has this question been answered?  If you can't execute the file
>or run it via an interpreter it can't carry a virus.

A counterexample to this assertion is the wdef viruses on the macs.  They are
carried in the Desktop file which is a data file describing the layout of the
windows.

>If it's source code for a compiler or interpreter the danger is present that
>it contains malicious instructions but visual inspection can quickly settle
>that.

You're saying that you can quickly read the source code to an entire compiler
and understand everything it does?  I find this extremely hard to believe.

ajr