Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!coherent!dplatt
From: dplatt@coherent.com (Dave Platt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Is there a virus in PUKE init?
Message-ID: <3456@coherent.com>
Date: 15 Apr 88 17:17:11 GMT
References: <5409@sigi.Colorado.EDU>
Distribution: na
Organization: Coherent Thought Inc., Palo Alto CA
Lines: 30
Keywords: Virus

When I first acquired a copy of MacPuke, I installed it on a Mac Plus
running System 3.2 and immediately began having problems with floppy
disk I/O.  Symptoms included a failure to eject the disk, strange
(prolonged) whirring and clicking during I/O, and damage to the disk
contents requiring reinitialization (Disk First Aid might have salvaged
the disk;  I didn't try, as its contents weren't important).

Needless to say, I deinstalled the INIT!  I posted a note about the
problems I'd have onto the EchoMac news-echo on FidoNet, and received
a couple of responses from people who were using MacPuke with System 4.1
with no difficulty.

I have since tested MacPuke on Mac SE and II machines under System 4.2,
and have had no problems (aside from a horrified look from my wife, who
finds "the sound" thoroughly nauseating).  A friend of mine did have a
problem after he installed it in a Mac SE that his employer was taking
to the San Francisco MacWorld Expo earlier this year... somebody stole
the SE!  This is clearly a wetware bug.

My supposition is that MacPuke is patching itself into the disk I/O
path via some mechanism that works properly under System 4.x, but
somehow graunches the floppy-disk driver's context under System 3.2,
leading to destruction of disks when used in this environment.  This
sort of problem may be the source of the rumor that MacPuke contains
a disk-eating virus/trojan-horse/time-bomb.

-- 
Dave Platt                                             VOICE: (415) 493-8805
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