Article View: comp.sys.mac
Article #26419Re: Vaccination for nVIR virus (long)
From: David HM Spector
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1988 19:27
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1988 19:27
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The following is my own opinion, but an informed one. I have a collection
of quite a few Macintosh viruses and am working on designing stragegies
for detecting and defending against them, so take the following with
that in mind:
The distribution of ANY virus sources, benign or othewrwise would be a very
VERY bad thing. It has now been shown through the experience with Mattias
Urlichs demonstration virus exactly what happens when such sources are
distributed. They generate more viruses.
In fact we have now seen that the distribution of a virus in any form,
including as object code or executables (i.e., the Brandow/MacMag virus)
gives malicious persons excellent programming models upon which to base
even nastier things. This is not a "possibility", its already happening.
I understand the desire to understand how these things work, but you
don't need the source for one to figure it out -- they work EXACTLY as
you'd think they would. Just think about a logical way to write one, and
you're probably correct.
In any case, There is no practical benefit to writing viruses; write some
great tool or application - become rich and famous then open a deli in like
Mitch Kapor... :-}
The upshot of this note is:
PLEASE DO _NOT_ POST SOURCES OR OBJECTS FOR VIRUS PROGRAMS OR TROJANS!
Also, please do not send me mail asking for any viruses I may have, requests
for such things will be firmly (but politely) rejected. I have to date
satisfied only 3 such requests, all from organisations with an absolutely
justifiable need for such information. (University Computer Center Staff's and
concerned company information managers are NOT among them... sorry.)
David
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David HM Spector New York University
Senior Systems Programmer Graduate School of Business
Arpa: SPECTOR@GBA.NYU.EDU Academic Computing Center
UUCP:...!{allegra,rocky,harvard}!cmcl2!spector 90 Trinity Place, Rm C-4
MCIMail: DSpector New York, New York 10006
AppleLink: D1161 CompuServe: 71260,1410 (212) 285-6080
"SJM 25, 'real nice guy' seeks SJF... What? This ISN'T The Voice personals?!"
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!yale!cmcl2!vx2!spector From: spector@vx2.GBA.NYU.EDU (David HM Spector) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: Vaccination for nVIR virus (long) Message-ID: <650011@vx2.GBA.NYU.EDU> Date: 16 Mar 88 19:27:00 GMT References: <4761@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> Organization: New York University Lines: 48