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From: CAH0@gte.com (Chuck Hoffman)
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: Re: Is virus infection by inserting floppy disk possible? (PC) (Mac)
Message-ID: <0013.9104162011.AA07133@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 15 Apr 91 15:28:37 GMT
Sender: Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
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Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu

diblasi@mail-gw.ncsl.nist.gov (Thomas DiBlasi) writes:
>
> Is it possible for a virus, trojan, worm, etc. to infect a hard disk
> or RAM simply by inserting an infected floppy into a drive without
> execution??

Yes, the WDEF virus on the Macintosh can do this.  By the time the
icon for the floppy appears on the screen, ALL the disks shown on the
screen will have been infected, both hard disks and floppies.  WDEF is
benign, and is easily deleted, and is detected by Virex before the
icon appears on the screen, but the answer to your question is yes.

WDEF is the only virus I have been hit with.  A friend sent me a text
file with a description of (you guessed it) WDEF infections!  I also
got a shrinkwrapped diskette from a software subscription service
which had WDEF on it, but by then I had Virex on the system so the
system did not pick up the WDEF.

- - Chuck Hoffman, GTE Laboratories, Inc.  |  I'm not sure why we're here,
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