CZMUREK%DREW.BITNET@VMA.CC.CMU.EDU (09/22/89)
[Ed. The following message was sent to VALERT-L, not
VIRUS-L/comp.virus (where it should have gone). Please send any
follow-ups here to VIRUS-L/comp.virus. Also, there are already a
number of responses to this message in this (and the next) digest.
I've included most of them since they present different reasons for
vetoing Chris's idea of creating a virus fighting virus. I will try
to keep the number of redundant messages on this to a minimum.]
It would seem to me, as probably to most of you, that the
creation of yet one more virus would be the last straw. But the other
day I had an idea that might have occured to the rest of you, or maybe
not. I began to design a virus algorythm that would eventually serve
as the platform for the destruction of other viruses. It's purpose
would be to infect single programs, single disks, or multiple disks in
the first, second and third versions respectively. Before any alarm
sets in here about my intentions, I would like to say that the purpose
here is to aid in the effort to combat these little nasties.
I am posting this info in the hopes that some of you will respond
with your thoughts on the moral, ethical, and legal aspects of such an
act as producing and spawning a virus that is intended to find and/or
kill off other viruses that it comes into contact with without causing
harm to any other software. I have thought of many ways to detect and
defeat viruses in this manner. I have not as of yet done any coding
beyond the replication stages. The two methods that I am using are by
the boot sector and by piggy-backing com and exec files. There are
others, but for obvious reasons I am not posting the source code or
other more elaborate techniques.
Please send me your insightful comments on this subject. I would
also like to know what you think about designing the software to
infect only the original user's system (this can be done) assuming it
was to be sold commercially.
Thank you in advance for your help in this ethical dilema...
Chris (poet)RJOHNSON%BCSC02.BITNET@VMA.CC.CMU.EDU (Ronald Johnson,) (09/22/89)
*** Reply to note of 09/22/89 00:11
The proposed "solution" is not acceptable.
1. It would be the beginning of a new "ARMS RACE" with each side trying to
overpower the other with increasingly sophisticated viruses.
2. The possibility for abuse is frightening.
.
Regards,
Ronald Johnson, acting Data Security Manager
Security Services, LDB, Vancouver, 254-5711 ext. 353