MMCCUNE@sctnve.BITNET (03/15/91)
I have received numerous questions and comments about my program INNOC.COM. Rather than answering the same questions several times, I will answer them here: HOW DOES IT WORK? All boot viruses look for hex strings in the boot sectors to determine if the disk is already infected. INNOC simply puts several of these strings in the boot sector so that the virus thinks the boot sector is already infected. The current version of INNOC inoculates against the Stoned, Brain, Ashar and the Ping_Pong viruses. WHY DID YOU SPELL IT WRONG? I added the extra "n" to distinguish it from several other products with similar names (unfortunately I also misspelled it in the docs as INNOCULATE.) I RAN INNOC ON AN INFECTED DISKETTE AND SCAN SAYS IT IS STILL INFECT- ED? INNOC disables the virus but doesn't remove it. The virus will still trigger SCAN and F-PROT, although the virus will no longer infect. If this is a problem, run CLEAN or F-DISINF (F-PROT) on the diskette then run INNOC on the diskette again. WHAT IS NEXT? The Joshi or Disk Killer can be added to INNOC without changing it's effectiveness against the other viruses. I will proba- bly make these separate programs, though. Any suggestions for viruses to write inoculation programs for? I have several boot infectors (Ashar, Brain, Disk Killer, EDV, Joshi, Mardi Brothers, Microbes, Music Bug, Stoned, Stoned II and Yale.) If anybody wants another virus inoculator, I will have to get a working copy of the virus. ANY OTHER QUESTIONS? Leave me a note on Virus-L or at MMCCUNE@SCTNVE on BITNET. Mike McCune...<MM>.