Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!husc6!rutgers!att!mtunb!dmt From: dmt@mtunb.ATT.COM (Dave Tutelman) Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Subject: Re: Pkzip virus, NOT REAL Summary: Watch your language! Message-ID: <1459@mtunb.ATT.COM> Date: 1 Apr 89 16:03:42 GMT References: <13505@sequent.UUCP> <22432@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> Reply-To: dmt@mtunb.UUCP (Dave Tutelman) Organization: AT&T Bell Labs - Lincroft, NJ Lines: 51 In article <22432@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> cc1@cs.ucla.edu (Max Kislik) writes: >In article msmith@topaz.rutgers.edu (Mark Robert Smith) writes: > >>THIS IS NOT A VIRUS! > >I don't know about you people, but when I downloaded pkzip 092 and played >with it for a while, it sure as hell made my hard disk crash!!!!! Fine, but that doesn't make it a virus. Too many people cheapen the language by grabbing a stylish buzzword and using it to mean ANYTHING! That has happened with "virus"! Since the news media picked up on the "Internet Virus" (which was not quite a true software virus, but close) some people are using the term "virus" for every program that behaves other than they expect. Please stop. In the past month, on this net, I have seen the term "virus" applied to: - Ordinary (albeit severe) bugs, like the one noted above. If it misfunctions and trashes your hoard disk, it's a bug, not a virus. - Nasty but not-self-propagating programs. If it deliberately trashes your hard disk, but doen't self-propagate, it's not a virus. - A utility program that does its record-keeping in unadvertised hidden directories. Doesn't self-propagate? STILL not a virus. The terms "virus" and "worm" are distinct, but both require the ability of the program to propagate itself. A simple bug or trojan horse isn't a virus. Now, could someone who really knows please critique my understanding of the terms: WORM: A program that replicates itself in one or more machines, though the interesting case is the worm that finds other attached machines and makes copies of itself on them. It propagates by running itself on the new machine, looking for other attached machines. VIRUS: A program that attaches itself to other programs and hides in them, propagating to other machines as the "host" program is deliberately moved to those machines. It propagates by finding programs in each machine, to which it attaches itself. +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Dave Tutelman | | Physical - AT&T Bell Labs - Lincroft, NJ | | Logical - ...att!mtunb!dmt | | Audible - (201) 576 2442 | +---------------------------------------------------------------+