Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!ukma!wuarchive!decwrl!polyslo!vlsi3b15!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: steve@clmqt.marquette.Mi.US (Steve Lasich) Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: Re: Idea for WDEF Innoculation (Mac) Message-ID: <0009.9002221232.AA07723@ge.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 21 Feb 90 17:51:43 GMT Sender: Virus Discussion List Lines: 32 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu CXT105@PSUVM.PSU.EDU (Christopher Tate) writes: >The big problem with this is that since the WDEF-removal code is itself >a virus, it stands a big chance of causing the same problems as any other >virus -- crashes due to poorly written code. >There have been no viruses written to date for the Macintosh which ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >deliberately cause damage to the system (*). All of the problems caused ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >by existing viruses are in fact the result of bugs in the viruses, which >causes interference with other programs under certain circumstances. >Since the above-mentioned inoculation program would be a virus itself, >it might well cause problems itself. I have seen this assertion made a half dozen times. Can somebody either confirm or deny the report I read in either MacUser or MacWorld (circa October 1988) that there is malicious code in the SCORES virus which is only activated by the presence on a disk volume of files containing certain creator IDs belonging to Electronic Data Systems (EDS), the company which Ross Perot sold to GM? I apologize if this is an old question that has been answered a hundred times already. >(*) Mosaic and Font Finder are not viruses (they do not replicate), but > are instead "trojan horses" -- destructive code hidden within an > innocuous-seeming program. >Christopher Tate | - ---------- Steve Lasich Micro Lab Coordinator steve@clmqt.marquette.mi.us .rutgers!mailrus!sharkey!clmqt!steve