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From: svihla@evax0.eng.fsu.edu (C. Kurt Svihla)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: STONED virus
Message-ID: <1990Nov27.141833.18847@mailer.cc.fsu.edu>
Date: 27 Nov 90 19:13:28 GMT
Reply-To: svihla@evax0.eng.fsu.edu
Distribution: na
Organization: Cash-Wielding Upstart U.
Lines: 21
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4


  This is not the best place to post this query but I was unable to post to
the somewhat more logical COMP.VIRUS.  Our department recently discovered the
STONED virus on six of our computers.  We were able to detect it and remove
it with no apparent damage to  our system.  Is STONED usually this benign or
were we just lucky?  As I understand it, STONED can only propagate from a
floppy to a hard drive if a boot is initiated while an infected floppy is in
the A: drive.  Is STONED unable to propagate in this manner from a B: drive?
How about from a Zenith PC, which are usually set to default boot from the
hard drive - will STONED only propagate if you initiate a floppy boot via the
Monitor program with a defective floppy in the A:drive?  Lastly, we found
STONED on many of our floppy disks - how does STONED transfer from the hard
disk to a floppy? Does this only occur when you format a floppy disk on an
infected machine? Does the presence of the STONED virus on a floppy disk
imperil the information stored on it in any way, or does the floppy just act
as a vector for the STONED virus?  Thanks in advance for any responses.

______________________________________________________________________
  C. Kurt Svihla    |                                                 |
SVIHLA@EVAX.ENG.FSU |                SPACE AVAILABLE                  |
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