Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!news.cs.indiana.edu!widener!netnews.upenn.edu!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!cert.sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: PHYS169@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (Mark Aitchison, U of Canty; Physics) Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: Re: Can such a virus be written .... (PC) Message-ID: <0009.9106261903.AA01188@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 25 Jun 91 23:19:00 GMT Sender: Virus Discussion List Lines: 26 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu Kevin_Haney%NIHCR31.BITNET@CU.NIH.GOV writes: > vanaards@project4.computer-science.manchester.ac.uk (Steven van Aardt) > writes: >> >> Is it possible to write a PC virus which installs itself whenever >> you place an infected disk in the drive and do a DIR command ? I wrote... > Yes. But on a PC this requires certain conditions, which mean it > probably wouldn't spread very far. > > I would like to know just what these conditions are. I'm not sure if I should broadcast the way in which a virus could do this, but I suppose I could mention the conditions... (1) Have ANSI.SYS (or similar) loaded, (2) Possibly make assumptions about what the user will type next, (3) Assume the user doesn't look too hard at the directory listing. I would expect such a virus, if it can be written, to have a low chance of spreading far. However, it is important to accept that *possibly* a virus could spread on PC's this way. Mark Aitchison.