[comp.virus] Tester Virus [TV] in LOG.COM

walker@AEDC-VAX.AF.MIL (William Walker C60223 x4570) (05/07/91)

Brian Daniel ( BDANIEL@USCN.BITNET ) writes:
> Question#1: Why does NETSCAN find the virus & SCAN not find the virus?
> . . .
> Question#4: Why is it only the LOG.COM file from PC-Magazine tht I've had
> for several years that shows up and infected?

I reassembled LOG.COM from the original source (I use a modified
version of it) on a known clean machine and ran both SCAN (v76C) and
NETSCAN (v76) on it.  My results were comparable with Brian's.
Apparently, SCAN and NETSCAN are using two different search strings
for the Tester Virus.  Also apparently, a portion of the code in
LOG.COM coincidentally matches the string NETSCAN uses to identify the
Tester Virus.  I guess it was only a matter of time before this type
of thing occurred (or has it occurred before???).  Aryeh Goretsky may
wish to verify these findings (many apologies if I spelled your name
wrong).

BTW, NETSCAN also found the Tester Virus in my modified version of
LOG.COM, and the v77 versions of SCAN and NETSCAN give the same
results as the v76 versions.  I don't have the Tester Virus search
strings to try Norton Antivirus on those files.

Bill Walker ( WALKER@AEDC-VAX.AF.MIL ) |
OAO Corporation                        |
Arnold Engineering Development Center  | "I'd like to solve the puzzle, Pat"
M.S. 120                               |
Arnold Air Force Base, TN  37389-9998  |