matt@ethz.UUCP (Martin Matt) (09/16/88)
In a german magazine (ST Magazine, former 68000er) I read about a scandinavian hacker group, which claimed to have written a virus that could format a write protected disk. The writer of the article claimed to have witnessed such evil thing happening. My question: is such thing possible without tampering with the hardware of the disk drive? The hacker group said, that they never distributed the beast. -- Martin Matt ( ...!cernvax!ethz!matt )
whitbye@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Elliot Maxwell Whitby) (09/19/88)
Yes it is unfortunately possible to write to write protected disks. This is a great idea for software protection, which I personally don't believe in, but you do get the unscrupulous people who are that bad that they will ruin everybody else's fun by writing pointless viusses which are no use to absolutely anyonee ps Borf is here.
paulm@nikhefk.UUCP (Paul Molenaar) (09/22/88)
In article <1633@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> whitbye@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Elliot Maxwell Whitby) writes:
#
#Yes it is unfortunately possible to write to write protected disks.
#This is a great idea for software protection, which I personally don't
#believe in, but you do get the unscrupulous people who are that bad that
#they will ruin everybody else's fun by writing pointless viusses which are
#no use to absolutely anyonee
#
#ps Borf is here.
C'mon... be more specific. Show me a program that writes to a writeprotected
disk. We did extensive tests on programs that claimed such activity and
always came to the conclusion that all of these rumours are bogwosh.
The hardware specs of Atari drives/diskcontroller are pretty much standard
and I've never (I mean NEVER) seen a modern diskdrive that wasn't
completely capable of recognizing writeprotection.
Gimme more than "Yes it is possible.."
Paul Molenaar
"Just checking the walls"
- Basil Fawlty -
--
Paul Molenaar
"Just checking the walls"
- Basil Fawlty -alderaan@netmbx.UUCP (Thomas Cervera) (09/22/88)
In article <1633@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk>, whitbye@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Elliot Maxwell Whitby) writes: > > Yes it is unfortunately possible to write to write protected disks. Huh ? As I've heard, the write protection signal prohibits the write circuitry in the floppy drive directly to write anything, so the drive would ignore any write commands from the controller. Or am I wrong ? -- alderaan OP RKOpdp (RSTS/E) FB Mathematik/Informatik RKO Berlin Dieffenbachstrasze 60-61 1000 Berlin 61
angles@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Ian Angles) (09/24/88)
Unfortunately I am not able to write a program to write to write- protected disks yet. Even when I do write such a program I will not divulge this information to anyone on the grounds that I hate virusses, and if there is a virus that could write to anything then imagine the consequences. In truth it is possible to bypass almost all the hardware interrupts on the ST by disabling them or catching them before the OS catches them. The only reasonable use I can see for writing to write-protected disks is in copy protection. But then again copy protection does not stop piracy, and is only there to enhance the bad feeling between the consumer and the software house. ps Borf Is here
whitbye@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Elliot Maxwell Whitby) (09/26/88)
At the moment I don't have a program that writes to the write protected disks, but I wouldn't send such a program across the net anyway, as all the hackers would get hold of it and write a virus with it. Imagine having a virus that ignores write protection. ps Borf is here
paulm@nikhefk.UUCP (Paul Molenaar) (09/26/88)
In article <1659@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> angles@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Ian Angles) writes:
#
# In truth it is possible to bypass almost all the hardware interrupts
#on the ST by disabling them or catching them before the OS catches them.
#
#ps
# Borf Is here
I don't want to start a big argument about this but...
Sure, the ST's hardware can (you say it) be bypassed. But how about
the drive's hardware? Drives too, or should I say: primarily, have
hardware that prevents writing to a write-protected disk. It's not
the diskcontroller that does all the work..
Paul Molenaar
"Just checking the walls"
- Basil Fawlty -
--
Paul Molenaar
"Just checking the walls"
- Basil Fawlty -artw@pnet01.cts.com (Art Weiss) (09/27/88)
With all this discussion about supposedly being able to write to
write-protected disks, I just thought I'd get my $.02 in. According to what
I've heard from various techs, there's a mechanical thingamabob in the drive
that senses the presence of the write protect tab (you can see it if you look
inside the drive). It's connected to a switch which shuts off the write
current to the heads. So there's just no way for the drive to write to the
disk. The system can be fooled into thinking it can but it still won't be able
to do so.
...Artwhitbye@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Elliot Maxwell Whitby) (09/27/88)
I personally do not believe whether anyone believes me or not, but the drives on the ST do not care what you do. All the drive does is send a signal to the OS telling you that you are trying to do something daft. Rewrite the OS and you can do whatever you want. I know that this is the way so please do not waste your time telling me that I am wrong. ps Borf is Here
koreth@ssyx.ucsc.edu (Steven Grimm) (09/30/88)
In article <1667@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> whitbye@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Elliot Maxwell Whitby) writes: > Rewrite the OS and you can do whatever you want. >I know that this is the way so please do not waste your time telling me that I >am wrong. I wouldn't dream of doing that, but I will suggest that you take your drive in to an authorized service center for repair. I don't doubt that you can indeed write to write-protected disks, but that is indicative of a broken disk drive, not a design flaw. --- These are my opinions, and in no way reflect those of UCSC, which are wrong. Steven Grimm Moderator, comp.{sources,binaries}.atari.st koreth@ssyx.ucsc.edu uunet!ucbvax!ucscc!ssyx!koreth
walkerb@tramp.Colorado.EDU (Brian Walker) (09/30/88)
In article <1659@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> angles@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Ian Angles) writes: [...] > In truth it is possible to bypass almost all the hardware interrupts >on the ST by disabling them or catching them before the OS catches them. I beg to differ. Write protection is usually a hardwired protection on the disk drive. The OS and programs can, however, neglect to pay attention to this fact and try anyways. As an example, early versions of Twister (a skewed track formatter) have been known to "format" write-protected disks. That is, they went through the motions but the information on the disk remained intact.