Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!uwvax!umn-d-ub!umn-cs!ems!nis!stag!trb
From: trb@stag.UUCP ( Todd Burkey )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Guidelines for virus authors
Message-ID: <335@stag.UUCP>
Date: 11 Feb 88 14:43:57 GMT
References: <8802072054.AA03747@jade.berkeley.edu> <8261@g.ms.uky.edu> <17301@glacier.STANFORD.EDU>
Reply-To: trb@stag.UUCP ( Todd Burkey )
Organization: Mindtools ST Access Group, Plymouth, MN
Lines: 44
Posted: Thu Feb 11 08:43:57 1988

In article <17301@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> jbn@glacier.UUCP (John B. Nagle) writes:
>In article <8261@g.ms.uky.edu> sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) writes:
>
>      I think he's right.  It will cost billions to make personal computers
>virus-proof, and may take a whole new generation of machines, yet it will

I doubt it...although making them trojan horse proof (or Damn Fool
Proof) could be very expensive. STick most everything on ROM (for OS
bootup anyway) and remove the need to load bootstrap routines from
disk at startup and you are most of the way there. By bootstrap
routines I am talking about things that have to be run from the boot
blocks as opposed to using the boot blocks just for informational
purposes (i.e. FAT info).

>
>     OS/2 is already virus-resistant to some degree, being a protected-mode
>operating system.  When the Mac line gets memory-management

The key thing you started talking about is PERSONAL COMPUTERS. As soon
as you say personal, then there is no such thing a true PROTECTED
mode, since the user is probably going to be in super user mode most
of the time. Even on my personal Unix box, I find myself logged in as
root a fair amount of the time. The only real protection you have in
having a Unix box is that you always get source when you get a program
or you get the program from a very trusted source (i.e. from the
vendor of your particular Unix box). If you are foolish enough to run
a program obtained through unknown channels as root, you deserve
whatever happens...and the original developer will be fairly easy to
trace.

I find it interesting that there is very little concern here in the
Cities among my Amiga friends about the Virus. Some of the developers
have seen it, but nobody I know of has gotten burned by them. Maybe
they just keep better backups and printouts of their code.

  -Todd Burkey
   trb@stag.UUCP

P.S. has anyone tried actually tracking down the original source of
the virus's? I can't imagine that it would be all that impossible a
task if someone at Commodore started making some phone calls. It would
be something like a binary tree walkback...just because everyone has
it doesn't mean you would have to talk to everyone. Then nail the
person and make an example of him/her/it.