XPUM04@prime-a.central-services.umist.ac.uk (Anthony Appleyard) (02/12/91)
With reference to this message:-
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Date: 11 Feb 91 01:16:47 +0000
From: millerje@holst.tmc.edu (jeffrey scott miller)
Subject: Re: Virus questions (PC)
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True. Viruses cannot infect text files, as they are never executed. Viruses
CAN look to see if a certain filetype is being accesses (i.e. .DBF), but
since there is no executable code in a text file, there is no way a virus
can "latch" onto the file.
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There was a long discussion in Virus-L in the past about viruses infecting
text files. Some systems and programs when reading text files treat some
character sequences as escape sequences to tell them to obey the following
characters specially, e.g. reading them as binary into store, or
trojanizing keyboard keys by altering what those keys do. So viruses <can>
infect or trojanize text files.
{A.Appleyard} (email: APPLEYARD@UK.AC.UMIST), Tue, 12 Feb 91 11:14:56 GMT