Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!pepper!cmcmanis
From: cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Write Protect (virus protection)
Message-ID: <37904@sun.uucp>
Date: 5 Jan 88 19:58:42 GMT
References: <1855@s.cc.purdue.edu>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Reply-To: cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 21
Keywords: virus, write protect, defeat

In article <1855@s.cc.purdue.edu> (Patrick White) writes:
>    At what level is the write protect tab enforced?  At the software
> or hardware level.  And is there anyway of defeating it via software?

On most 3.5" drives the write protect tab is a physical interlock in the
write circuit of the drive. A couple of manufacturers have allegedly made
drives that do *not* break the write circuit, although no one to my knowledge
has identified one that does this. 

>   ie: is there any way a virus could defeat the write-protect tab on
>a disk (perhaps by fiddling disk drive registers)?   I don't want to
>know how, just if it is possible.  It's a sobering thought if it is.

It is possible to make AmigaDOS think that the drive is not write
protected when it really is, but the physical interlock will prevent
writing anyway. 


--Chuck McManis
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis   BIX: cmcmanis  ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.