[comp.virus] locked macintosh disks

3XMQGAA@CMUVM (Sari) (08/25/89)

     In reply to Dan Carr's question. No, when you lock a macintosh disk and st
ick in the drive, there is absolutley no way for the virus to infect the disk.
Acknowledge-To: <3XMQGAA@CMUVM>

rbl@uunet.UU.NET ( Dr. Robin Lake ) (09/08/89)

In article <0001.8908281204.AA22127@ge.sei.cmu.edu> 3XMQGAA@CMUVM writes:
|>In reply to Dan Carr's question. No, when you lock a macintosh disk and stick
|>in the drive, there is absolutley no way for the virus to infect the disk.

It was my understanding that the locked disk signal is read by
software, not by the Mac's hardware.  The standard device driver(s)
for the floppy may prevent writing to a locked disk, but a virus could
override the driver(s) and infect the disk --- if my understanding is
correct.

Rob Lake
BP Research
uunet!nitrex!rbl

[Ed. VIRUS-L veterans will recognize this topic, much to their
consternation.  Please folks, let's *PLEASE* not flood the "airwaves"
with hearsay.  If someone has something that can be substantiated
(preferably via a citation from a vendor's technical document) to
offer on this, then please do so - otherwise, please let us all RUN
LIKE MAD AWAY FROM THIS TOPIC.]