ajbrouw@neabbs.UUCP (ALBERT-JAN BROUWER) (12/20/89)
For a while now, there's been this new virus here in Europe that installs itself in memory whenever you insert an infected disk. It replaces the disk-validator and invalidates the disks it is on. The virus is able to spread because the old filing system looks for :l/Disk-Validator first and for l:Disk-Validator after that, whenever it encounters an invalid floppy. It's operation is rather conspicuous, I don't expect it to cause an epidemic. Still, 1000 owners might want to patch their KickStart, and others may no longer assume that, as long as they don't run it or boot it, it'll be alright. I'll save you from additional sickening details, suffice it to say that this ecological niche shouldn't have been there in the first place (Commodore, 1.4?). -- -Albert (hp4nl!neabbs!ajbrouw) Optimize your options, both in quantity and quality.
new@udel.edu (Darren New) (12/21/89)
In article <266987@neabbs.UUCP> ajbrouw@neabbs.UUCP (ALBERT-JAN BROUWER) writes: >.... The virus is able to spread because the old >filing system looks for :l/Disk-Validator first and for l:Disk-Validator after >that, whenever it encounters an invalid floppy. >I'll save you from additional sickening details, suffice it to say that this >ecological niche shouldn't have been there in the first place (Commodore, 1.4?). Actually, I'd noticed this but assumed that this was done on purpose. It would allow your disk to replace the DiskValidator with your own validator for special-format disks. A shame some slob has to go and write a virus that takes advantage of this. -- Darren