POPOVICH@UCF1VM.BITNET (Peter Edward Popovich) (03/02/90)
I have now seen at least 3 notices regarding what people originally thought was WDEF. ALL noted problems while printing. ALL noted that the virus was NOT detected by virus-detecting programs that are fully capable of detecting WDEF. I am left with one real thought: a new virus? I know nothing about Macintoshes. Our local power-users are infinitely more familiar than I. However, it occurs to me that a resourceful person could possibly create a PDEF virus (Assuming there is a PDEF to infect.) Could a TECHNICALLY-ORIENTED PROGRAMMER please check for me to see if PDEF exists? If so, I suggest the probability that someone has converted the WDEF idea into a PDEF. Either way, could the people who reported the virus infections PLEASE call one of the authors of the utilities they checked their computers with? They can't write a checker for a virus they don't have. (Then again, it's possible that the posters just didn't use the virus- checkers correctly.) Disclaimers apply, as always/No offense intended/Please read all replies to this message that have been sent before replying. Peter E. Popovich
yh0a+@andrew.cmu.edu (Yary Richard Phillip Hluchan) (03/14/90)
Well, there is no "PDEF", but there are printer drivers (files containing code) which could become infected. Also, every Laserwriter printer has a 68000 and at least a meg of memory, someone could conceivably infect that. That's all we need, a PostScript virus... (Is there a week lag in messages, or has the net been dead since 6 Mar? Perhaps a virus is chewing them all up...) [Ed. There was a problem with comp.virus distribution related to my change in email address; it is fixed now.]