🚀 go-pugleaf

Padgett Peterson notes that:

>Problem is that many viruses do not attach themselves properly to files &
>overwrite part of the file or lose the original pieces. Once this happens
>the file cannot be reconstructed. Unlike the movies where every virus does
>exactly what it is supposed to, in the real world virus code is incredibly
>buggy. Possibly this is because those people who could write one without
>without bugs won't 8*) - but don't count on it. (do you hear an echo
>here ?)

I would like to suggest that the problem is more fundamental than
simply one of skill.  Writing a perfectly harmless virus requires a
perfect knowledge of the environment.  Not only must the writer
understand the execution environment perfectly, but he must also 
understand the population perfectly.

Padgett observes:

>For instance, Michelangelo is known to foul up 720k floppies, not
>deliberately,
>but because it *assumes* that all non-360k floppies are the same.

This is a simple oversight, but writing the perfectly harmless virus
requires this knowledge plus perfect knowledge of all other relevant 
factors about every system in the population.  Such perfect knowledge
is impossible.

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