Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pallas!kabra437 From: kabra437@pallas.athenanet.com (Ken Abrams) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: virus Message-ID: <295@pallas.athenanet.com> Date: 16 Feb 90 01:37:59 GMT References: <437@matrox.com> <1888@milton.acs.washington.edu> <1515@krafla.rhi.hi.is> Reply-To: kabra437@pallas.UUCP (Ken Abrams) Organization: Athenanet, Inc., Springfield, Illinois Lines: 25 In article <1515@krafla.rhi.hi.is> frisk@rhi.hi.is (Fridrik Skulason) writes: >In article <1888@milton.acs.washington.edu> yjkim@milton.acs.washington.edu (Yong Kim) writes: >>I was told that there is a nonstandard(?) virus which peneterates >>into your CMOS memory(backed up by battery). > >There is NO SUCH VIRUS!! > The code would never be executed. > The CMOS memory is too small for a virus - A working wirus needs > at least 150-200 bytes. Let's see if I can word this so it won't come off flaming (pilot light,maybe). The original post did not say (nor imply) that the virus would DO anything (ie. executable code) within the CMOS once it got there. If we accept that the author was only asking about a virus that would WRITE to the CMOS RAM, then I think your conclusion that there is no such thing is slightly off base. Judging by your signature, I'm sure that you know a lot more than I do about invasion programs (call them virus or trojan or whatever) but I have heard of at least one "strain" that attempts to change the CMOS data. -- ======================================================== Ken Abrams uunet!pallas!kabra437 Illinois Bell kabra437@athenanet.com Springfield (voice) 217-753-7965