st871184@pip.cc.brandeis.edu (01/23/91)
I hope this hasn't been discussed already, but I'm curious about
the net world's thoughts about what will happen to all the viruses (Virii)
we know and hate when system 7.0 comes out (in the first quarter of 1991?)
I had a couple of thoughts (based on no evidence whatsoever) of what
might happen, ranging from the hopeful to the nightmarish. If anyone
(like anti-virus authors?) has been playing with 7.0 beta versions and viruses,
I think the net world would be interested in your wisdom.
(Wishful thinking) System 7 will be so different that existing viruses
will not be able to spread, but neither will they cause any problems at all.
The current crop of viruses (excepting WDEF) will not spread, because they
will immediately cause infected applications to crash.
Viruses will spread, but will frequently cause System 7 to crash.
Obviously, I've simplified things a bit (mainly because I am not a mac
guru by any means), but I still think that the subject is one we should worry
about after we finish worrying about _when_ system 7 comes along.
Jeremy (internet address: st871184@pip.cc.brandeis.edu)phaedrus@milton.u.washington.edu (Mark Phaedrus) (01/25/91)
st871184@pip.cc.brandeis.edu writes: > I hope this hasn't been discussed already, but I'm curious about >the net world's thoughts about what will happen to all the viruses (Virii) >we know and hate when system 7.0 comes out (in the first quarter of 1991?) Based on my limited Mac programming experience, I sincerely doubt that there will be much change. System 7 is not going to magically change all the rules of Mac programming; it adds new features on top of the existing ones. If this weren't true, no System 6- programs would work with System 7. Therefore, I would speculate that the existing crop of viruses will do just fine, since they mostly use the same sorts of file system calls that applications do. WDEF and the other "stealth" viruses might run into trouble, if they use any undocumented file system features to get around virus detection programs. Those viruses might stop propagating, or might crash the machine. But more conventional viruses (Scores, etc.) should work under Sys 7. - -- Internet: phaedrus@u.washington.edu (University of Washington, Seattle) The views expressed here are not those of this station or its management. "If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, consider an exciting career as a guillotine operator!"