🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1hohdhINNr3t@crcnis1.unl.edu> vporguen@unlinfo.unl.edu (victor porguen) writes:

>Remember: it doesn't infect or modify files. There is only ONE 
>specimen of the Stoned virus per disk or diskette, no more. But it
>is a TSR, and stays in memory if you boot from an infected disk.
>If so, it will infect ANY diskette you insert into the machine.
>That's the only way it can enter a system: by booting or attempted 
>booting from an infecte disk, either system disk or not.

Last week a friend asked me to fix a floppy--an original disk from a
commercial program.  The boot record (and following sector) had
unusual code, so I suspected a boot-record virus.  Because no messages
were displayed on his screen, I guessed it was the Stoned virus, and
checked the spot it places the correct boot record.  There was
code--out of place--but different from the correct boot code and
different from that in the first sector.  This was Michelangelo.  The
poor floppy caught one, then the other.

An ordinary virus remover might well have carefully copied the
Michelangelo over the Stoned, activating a very dangerous virus.  So
while it's true that your disk can have ony one copy of the Stoned
virus, watch out!--similar infecters interact.

I used the latest F-Prot to remove them both simultaneously (and
installed its integrity checker).

BTW, the little program in the boot record is run not only during
booting, but any time the computer needs to know what medium is in the
drive.  This is why disks copy-protected with an odd format don't
surprise your computer.  In principle, if you insert a floppy with a
boot-record infection and type "C:\DOS>dir a:", your machine can be
infected.

Bruce (Gypsy Scholar)
-- 
Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
bathurst@phoenix.princeton.edu bathurst@pucc.bitnet !princeton!phoenix!bathurst