Article View: comp.sys.mac
Article #33885Re: Need Vaccine Type Programs
From: Danny Schwendener
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 1988 17:36
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 1988 17:36
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9112 bytes
There is currently no known PD program that is explicitly a virus
carrier. Sometimes a program gets infected and is uploaded to a BBS.
This was the case, for example, of Stuffit 1.21, as an infected
version of that program has been uploaded to a texan BBS. HOWEVER,
THIS WAS A LOCAL INFECTION. This virus never made it far outside
Texas, and was discovered just a few days after it was uploaded.
Really important in that business is the Leitmotiv "Don't Panic". We
are at the fourth nVIR wave on our site, because some institutes just
don't care about disk hygiene until they are struck by a virus
themselves. But then, it is already (almost) too late...
There is a virus discussion list on BITNET and I encourage everybody
who has access to that net to sign up. Send the following interactive
message to LISTSERV@LEHIIBM1.BITNET:
SUBSCRIBE VIRUS-L "Your full name"
Below is a list of the virus detection/killer programs I know of, with
a short description of what they're doing. I have Vaccine CDEV,
Interferon,Virus-Rx, KillScores, VirusDetective, VCheck, nVIR Vaccine
and Ferret,but I really only use Vaccine CDEV and Interferon as
detection programs, and one of the killer programs if it really gets
tough (KillScores, nVIR Vaccine). Oh, and the dukakis vaccine, of
course, which you have to install only once in your Home stack.
The documentation has been written by Joe McMahon and is available as
Hypercard stack.
By the way, Joe's address is:
Code 631 Bitnet : XRJDM@SCFVM
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center CompuServe: 72330,554
Greenbelt, MD 20771
-- Danny
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-------------------------------Text follows --------------------------------
Product name: Vaccine 1.0
Author: Don Brown, CE Software
Price: Free
Agreements: No fee must be charged for Vaccine and it
must not be modified.
Class: Automatic, general prevention.
Vaccine is a CDEV and designed to provide Rpartial protection from
worms and viruses.S It does this by trapping attempts to write
executable resources to any file on your system. Vaccine will respond
to any such attempt by displaying a dialog showing the resource type
which is being added and the file to which it is being added. The user
may either prevent or allow this access.
---------------------------
Product name: Interferon 3.1
Author: Robert Woodhead
Price: Free (optional donation; see details)
Agreements: Copyrighted, but permission given to
reproduce and distribute.
Class: Manual, general detection. File deletion.
Interferon 3.1 is a Rsearch, report and destroyS application. It
recognizes the known viruses, and can delete files which are deemed to
be infected.
Interferon is probably the most comprehensive of the virus-checking
programs. It is set up to check likely areas for invasion by new
viruses in addition to checking for known ones.
---------------------------
Product name: Virus Rx
Author: Apple Computer
Price: Free
Agreements: Copyrighted, but may be distributed freely.
Class: Manual, general detection.
Virus Rx scans for common symptoms of viral attack, such as INIT,
RDEV, and CDEV files in the system folder, unusual CODE 0 resources,
and others. It produces a report in a text file, which may be saved
or printed as a record of disk status.
Virus Rx does not disinfect applications or systems. Accompanying
documentation recommends replacement of infected files.
---------------------------
Product name: VirusDetective*
Author: Jeffery S. Shulman
Price: $10
Agreements: Copyrighted; permission given to distribute.
Class: Manual, general detection/removal.
Virus Detective* provides an anti-viral program in a desk accessory.
It currently searches for Scores and nVIR infectsion, but is easily
customizable to search for other resources.
Version 1.2 allows you to produce a log file show the status of all
files, files suspected of infection, and files not suspected of
infection.
---------------------------
Product name: KillScores
Author: MacPack User Group, Dallas TX
Price: Free
Agreements: Copyrighted, but permission given to
reproduce and distribute.
Class: Manual, specific detection/removal.
KillScores efficiently discovers and repairs applications and systems
infected with the Scores virus. It does not look for nor does it
remove any other type of viral infection. KillScores seems to be more
effective than Ferret in cleaning up infected applications and
systems.
---------------------------
Product name: VCheck
Author: Albert Lunde, Northwestern University
Price: Free
Agreements: Copyrighted. See details about distribution.
Class: Manual, general protection.
VCheck checks for changes in the contents of the active system folder,
the boot blocks, and on all applications on all mounted volumes. It
does not remove viruses, but simply warns of their possible existence
by detecting RdangerousS resources. VCheck keeps a checksum file for
all of the above items for comparison purposes. VCheck is written in
Turbo Pascal and source is provided.
---------------------------
Product Name: nVIR Vaccine
Author: Mike* Scanlin
Price: See details; source in May 1988 MacUser
Agreements: Copyrighted; distribution restrictions unclear.
Class: Manual, specific (partial) removal.
nVIR Vaccine is a specific targeted at the RnVIRS virus. It removes
this virusonly from applications which are infected with it.
nVIR Vaccine is not an automatic program. You will have to select all
of the programs to be disinfected manually. Also, nVIR Vaccine does
not remove the virus from the System file. See the details for how to
do this.
---------------------------
Product name: Sniffer
Author: Unknown
Price: Free
Agreements: See details
Class: Manual, general detection.
Sniffer is a simple application which can be customized to search for
a given resource. Sniffer will scan for the selected resource, check
for applications which have non-standard CODE 0 resources (a possible
symptom of infection), and can rename files which are possibly
infected.
Sniffer does no disinfection. You must know the types and IDs of the
resources which are to be looked for.
---------------------------
Product name: Ferret 1.0
Author: Larry Nedry
Price: Free
Agreements: Copyrighted, but permission given toJdistribute.
Class: Manual, specific detection/removal.
Ferret 1.0 is an application which scans for and removes the Scores
virus only.
It scans the selected files for the Scores signature resources. It
they are found, they are removed and the affected applications
repaired.
There have been reports that Ferret is not as good as KillScores and
that version 1.1 may in fact leave viral resources applications after
cleaning.
---------------------------
Product name: Blood Test
Author: Doug Werner, Apple Computer
Price: Free
Agreements: All rights reserved; not distributable.
Class: Manual, specific and general detection.
Blood Test looks for specific resources and reports if they are found.
It can check for damaged applications (i.e., those with bad resource
forks), and can also check for patched trap addresses in the system
trap dispatch table.
Blood Test does no disinfection; it is simply a means of detecting
possible infections.
---------------------------
Product name: Dukakis Vaccine
Author: Ian Summerfield, Apple Computer UK Ltd.
Price: Free to everyone except the originator of the virus.
Agreements: No distribution restrictions.
Class: Automatic, specific and general detection/prevention.
Dukakis Vaccine is a HyperCard script designed to both detect the
Dukakis virus and to prevent its invasion into stacks. The script is
general enough to be of utility in blocking other HyperCard-only
viruses.
Dukakis Vaccine only monitors changes to scripts; it cannot block
viral XCMDs or XFCNs. It does not remove the virus, but blocks it and
alerts you to the virus's presence.
---------------------------
Technical Details
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!mcvax!cernvax!ethz!macman From: macman@ethz.UUCP (Danny Schwendener) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: Need Vaccine Type Programs Keywords: virus vaccine nVIR scores dukakis Message-ID: <661@ethz.UUCP> Date: 30 Oct 88 17:36:46 GMT Article-I.D.: ethz.661 References: <3548@crash.cts.com> Reply-To: macman@ethz.UUCP (Danny Schwendener) Organization: ETH Zuerich, Switzerland Lines: 231