🚀 go-pugleaf

Irene Lowe (icypole@nettrek.com.au) wrote:
: Hello to everyone,

: I have a strange problem.  A friend has an old XT. It somehow was
: infected with the Stoned virus and after a few months of use, the
: computer became useless.

: She asked me to fix the problem and it turned out to be the virus. 
: Because the unit still uses 5 1/4 inch floppies, I was able to find an
: old version of McAfee's Virus Scan and Virus Clean which would work on
: her machine. I completely scanned and cleaned the hard drive and also
: all the 5 1/4 inch floppies she had.

: A few months down the track and it appears that the virus has returned
: from nowhere.  I scanned the hard drive and there it was again.  There
: was no way that she could have used an infected floppy disk in the drive
: and I am at a loss as to how the virus could have reinfected itself on
: the hard drive. I cleaned it again two weeks ago and she has phoned me
: tonight to tell me that the computer is doing silly things again. I
: suspect that the virus had done it again! Does this virus has a way of
: recreating itself once you have cleaned the suspect disks?

3 possibilities as i see it...

1) a dropper is present (a dropper is a program that injects the virus 
into the clean system)..
2) scan/clean didn't really clean the machine or there was a disk that 
was missed or otherwise not cleaned... 
3) amazing as it sounds perhaps she's (or someone else) using her disks in 
another (infected) machine that you've as yet not been made aware of...

: If anyone could help me solve this puzzle, please can you email me
: directly (to save the sanity of my poor friend!)

for number one, try a different scanner - droppers attempt to hide the 
virus but they don't necessarily succeed to hide it from all scanners...
for number 2, try a different (or newer) scanner again...
for number 3, grill her and anyone else who could possibly get access to 
the computer - apply a thin layer of barbeque sauce, turn, and then grill 
the other side...

: Thanks all.

you're welcome, hope this helps...
-- 
"do as i say not as i do because 
 the shit so deep you can't run away
 i beg to differ on the contrary
 i agree with every word that you say"