Xref: utzoo comp.unix.wizards:11769 comp.misc:3814 comp.sys.amiga:24073 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!rutgers!bellcore!tness7!texbell!tness1!sugar!peter From: peter@sugar.uu.net (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,comp.misc,comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: The Usenet Virus: a case history. Keywords: Orson Welles Message-ID: <2840@sugar.uu.net> Date: 16 Oct 88 13:45:14 GMT References: <2836@sugar.uu.net> <12840@oberon.USC.EDU> Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston, TX Lines: 30 In article <12840@oberon.USC.EDU>, papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) writes: > In article <2836@sugar.uu.net> peter@sugar.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes: > > The Usenet virus: a case history. > > (A cautionary tale). > The description fits pretty much the model of virus described in Fred Cohen's > thesis (date: 1983) and in fact more than one of very similar UNIX viruses > were built as part of "student projects" at USC. Much of the best software shows up as student projects... students have a lot of time and a wonderful support structure surrounding them. I'm interested to learn that I independently derived the same sort of virus, since I've never read the paper in question nor attended any of the course you've mentioned in the past. Perhaps this is an obvious evolution... certainly every decision I made in putting the article together seemed pretty much forced by my goals. > So it is a hardly new, > and divulging such information will have absolutely no effect of whether > or not such a type of virus will show up on Usenet or on your favourite > UNIX host. I doubt if any of the student projects will show up, considering how tracable they are. Some time or another, though, someone is going to try something like this. Might I direct your attention to the discussion about UNIX security... and the metadiscussion about whether such discussion is appropriate... that is even as we speak winding down into yet another morass of useless hints. -- Peter da Silva `-_-' peter@sugar.uu.net Have you hugged U your wolf today?