Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!ll-xn!oberon!nunki.usc.edu!sal23.usc.edu!rjung
From: rjung@sal23.usc.edu (Robert Jung)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: A cure looking for a disease? (I hope)
Message-ID: <432@nunki.usc.edu>
Date: 9 Mar 88 18:43:43 GMT
References: <8803081650.AA29358@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Sender: news@nunki.usc.edu
Reply-To: rjung@sal23.usc.edu (Robert Jung)
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 41
Keywords: virus, Atari
Summary: Yes, what does it do?

In article <8803081650.AA29358@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> 051332@UOTTAWA.BITNET (John Turnbull) writes:
>A program called VDU_2_0.PRG has been posted to the FILESERVers at
>CANADA01 and UHUPVM1.  It is claimed that it will cure the 'Boot sector'
>virus and immunize the disk from future infection with this virus.
>
>Does anybody have any information about this virus, its mode of
>infection, mechanism, symptoms or how wide-spread it may have become?
>
>Please post replies to the net.  Most people will be interested.  /JT

  Yes, this is interesting, especially since I find it hard for a virus to
proliferate on a microcomputer (since it gets coldstarted quite often,
relative to mainframes, where these things are easy).

  I'm also interested in what this virus does. Rumor mill in the L.A.
area has it that there are at least two viruses running around, but I
can't confirm (supposedly one is from Germany, and ST-Express has a program
to "find" it). There is also a utility program and a desk accessory
that's supposed to "check" your disks for the virus. Whether or not they
really work is another matter.


  A local ST programmer here says that he's dissected the code, and while
he doesn't know exactly what it does (either that, or he's not telling me),
it "modifieds the disk I/O buffers in some manner"...Sounds like bad news
to me.

  Any virus information would be handy. Just what DOES this thing do, anyway?


						--R.J.,
						sharing information
						B-)

P.S. Has anyone else heard the rumor that (one of) the Amiga virus programs
is designed to cause "a massive worldwide screw-up" on some prespecified date?
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