gregb15@pro-charlotte.cts.com (Greg Beckham) (06/26/88)
On FidoNet I caught wind of a *RUMOR* of another virus, just more deadly.
The rumor is that the viruse hides itself in your memory expansion, then when
you power down, it still lives! off of the battery for the clock. I don't know
how true or how bogus this is but I just thought I'd pass it along.
Greg Beckham
UUCP: [ ihnp4 cbosgd sdcsvax nosc ] !crash!pro-charlotte!gregb15
ARPA: crash!pro-charlotte!gregb15@nosc.mil
INET: gregb15@pro-charlotte.cts.comfilip@alberta.UUCP (Don Filipchuk) (06/27/88)
In article <3152@crash.cts.com> gregb15@pro-charlotte.cts.com (Greg Beckham) writes: > > On FidoNet I caught wind of a *RUMOR* of another virus, just more deadly. > The rumor is that the viruse hides itself in your memory expansion, then when >you power down, it still lives! off of the battery for the clock. I don't know ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ (is this possible? Now how am I supposed to sleep at night?) >how true or how bogus this is but I just thought I'd pass it along. > > Greg Beckham So is it possible? Don
cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (06/28/88)
For the non technically oriented people reading this newsgroup let me
assure you that it is patently impossible for any program to survive in
memory while power cycling on the Amiga. There is no RAM in the clock
chip (and even if you have a clock chip with RAM it only has 4 bit nybbles
and would never get executed anyway). It can't be done, period.
There are some bits in the clock chip you can stomp on that are annoying
such as the TEST bit, but no damage to your system, data, or programs is
possibe.
--Chuck McManis
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.maloff@calgary.UUCP (Sheldon Maloff) (06/29/88)
In article <58141@sun.uucp>, cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) writes: > .... There is no RAM in the clock > chip (and even if you have a clock chip with RAM it only has 4 bit nybbles > and would never get executed anyway). It can't be done, period. I was under the assumption that the Spirit Technologies memory board for the a1000 (which I have) has a 2K battery backed up ram on board. I say assumption because I haven't looked at the specs lately, but that would mean it could be done, no? That memory on the clock is meant to hold stuff during power down, and it would make no sense to have 2K of battery backed up ram only to have it wiped on power up. Then again this would be a very limited virus. || Sheldon ----========== \\ -----======|| || maloff@calgary.UUCP -----====== // Calgary, Alberta || || {ihnp4!alberta}!calgary!maloff -----== \\ Past Host of the || || .. eventually, we'll all be scaled by zero and ---= // '88 Winter Games || || converge upon the origin ... then we'll party! -= \\ ---==||
farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren) (06/29/88)
In article <264@cadomin.UUCP> filip@cadomin.UUCP (Don Filipchuk) writes: |gregb15@pro-charlotte.cts.com (Greg Beckham) writes: || On FidoNet I caught wind of a *RUMOR* of another virus, just more deadly. || The rumor is that the viruse hides itself in your memory expansion, then when ||you power down, it still lives! off of the battery for the clock. I don't know | | So is it possible? No. -- Michael J. Farren | "INVESTIGATE your point of view, don't just {ucbvax, uunet, hoptoad}! | dogmatize it! Reflect on it and re-evaluate unisoft!gethen!farren | it. You may want to change your mind someday." gethen!farren@lll-winken.llnl.gov ----- Tom Reingold, from alt.flame
cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (06/30/88)
In article <1705@vaxb.calgary.UUCP> maloff@calgary.UUCP (Sheldon Maloff) writes: > I was under the assumption that the Spirit Technologies memory board > for the a1000 (which I have) has a 2K battery backed up ram on board. > I say assumption because I haven't looked at the specs lately, but that > would mean it could be done, no? > Sheldon No. For any sort of computer virus to take effect, it has to be executed and that will never ever happen with the 2K RAM. Now if you wanted to, you could buy some TTL decoder chips and wire up an address decoder that decodes the boot rom addresses to the spirit clock's ram, and overlayed the ROM. Then whatever was in the RAM would be executed first. However, no one that I know will spend the two or three hours needed to kludge up such a circuit just so they can be infected by a virus no one has written. (Note if you ever get a Public Domain program that says "This will quintuple floppy disk accesses all you need to do is rewire your Amiga with this complicated circuit and run my program." you will no immediately that it is a bogus program.) There is no way for a virus to use the clock ram or battery to survive power cycling. Period. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
srt@cos.com (Stan R. Turner) (06/30/88)
In article <1705@vaxb.calgary.UUCP> maloff@calgary.UUCP (Sheldon Maloff) writes: >I was under the assumption that the Spirit Technologies memory board >for the a1000 (which I have) has a 2K battery backed up ram on board. >I say assumption because I haven't looked at the specs lately, but that >would mean it could be done, no? That memory on the clock is meant >to hold stuff during power down, and it would make no sense to have >2K of battery backed up ram only to have it wiped on power up. Then >again this would be a very limited virus. Even if a program existed within your 2K ram there is no way that the CPU would be executing that program unless the virus patched your operating system to execute the program in non volitile ram. If it did this then why bother to stick the program in non volitile ram in the first place. I do not know why a clock needs 2K of battery backed up ram. Anyway that is my 2 cents worth. -- Mail to {decuac,hadron,hqda-ai,uunet}!cos.com!srt (Stanley R. Turner)
mp1u+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Portuesi) (07/02/88)
> *Excerpts from ext.nn.comp.sys.amiga: 26-Jun-88 rus rumor! Greg* > *Beckham@pro-charlot (522)* > On FidoNet I caught wind of a *RUMOR* of another virus, just more deadly. > The rumor is that the viruse hides itself in your memory expansion, then when > you power down, it still lives! off of the battery for the clock. I don't know > how true or how bogus this is but I just thought I'd pass it along. I wouldn't trust *anything* I read on Fidonet. I read the Fidonet Amiga echo and only about 10% of the stuff that goes by isn't: * totally bogus. * Amiga vs. Atari ST flame. Basically, the tech level of the people on Fidonet isn't as high as it is here. Most of the people on Usenet program computers for a living, and it shows in the kinds of discussions we see. Many of the people on Fidonet are pimply-faced teenagers who just upgraded to an Amiga from the C-64. --M Michael Portuesi / Information Technology Center / Carnegie Mellon University ARPA/UUCP: mp1u+@andrew.cmu.edu BITNET: rainwalker@drycas "if you ain't ill it'll fix your car"
erd@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Ethan R. Dicks) (07/02/88)
In article <3256@cos.com> srt@cos.UUCP (Stan R. Turner) writes: !In article <1705@vaxb.calgary.UUCP> maloff@calgary.UUCP (Sheldon Maloff) writes: !>I was under the assumption that the Spirit Technologies memory board !>for the a1000 (which I have) has a 2K battery backed up ram on board. !>I say assumption because I haven't looked at the specs lately, but that !>would mean it could be done, no? That memory on the clock is meant !>to hold stuff during power down, and it would make no sense to have !>2K of battery backed up ram only to have it wiped on power up. Then !>again this would be a very limited virus. Yes. There is 2K of battery backed up RAM on a SPIRIT inboard (both 1000 and 500 models, if the 500 model has the clock installed) This RAM is _byte_ wide... very hard to execute ;-) ! Even if a program existed within your 2K ram there is no way that !the CPU would be executing that program unless the virus patched !your operating system to execute the program in non volitile ram. If !it did this then why bother to stick the program in non volitile ram !in the first place. I do not know why a clock needs 2K of battery !backed up ram. ! Anyway that is my 2 cents worth. The RAM is present _on_ the clock chip (the big tall DIP thing on an INBOARD) SPRIT used an off the shelf part which happened to also have battery backed RAM. This part was originally designed for the 650x series microprocessors, which are 8 bit. The clock chip hangs on a bus like 2K of RAM, with the first 10 bytes being overshadowed by clock registers. On the Amiga, I _think_ that is simply looks like the low byte, for 4k of address space. ! !-- !Mail to {decuac,hadron,hqda-ai,uunet}!cos.com!srt (Stanley R. Turner) Hope this clears things up. -ethan -- Ethan R. Dicks | ###### This signifies that the poster is a member in A.C.T | ## good sitting of Inertia House: Bodies at rest. 4320 Tuller Road | ## Dublin OH 43017-9502 | ###### "You get it, you're closer."