🚀 go-pugleaf

RADAI@HUJIVMS.BITNET (Y. Radai) writes:


>  Kenny Stevenson writes:

>>Vaccine anti-virus system -  "Vaccine  is virus-non specific detection
>>software.  It uses  cryptographic checksums to  monitor the  state  of
>>executables on  a PC or  file-server.  Any change, however caused will
>>be detected.  Since  Vaccine does not  need to know  about  particular
>>viruses in order to detect them,  it is future proof.  Once installed,
>>Vaccine will detect all viruses, past, present and future."

>There is absolutely nothing new in this ad.  There are zillions of
>checksum programs for the PC which claim to do the very same thing.

They don't cater for this scenario:-

1. Somehow infect the RAM of your PC with a COM/EXE targetting
   virus, such as Plastique (eg run an infected program from a
   floppy, or from a network).

2. Run SCAN on your hard disk - this does a DOS open on all COM/EXE
   files on your hard disk, and thus infects each and every such
   file _after_ SCAN has pronounced them virus-free

3. You end up with every COM/EXE file on your disk having to be
   reloaded, but you believe otherwise until you find out the
   bitter truth

4. You treat checksum checking programs with utter disgust, because
   they fooled you into believing that you had protection.

Don't say that is cannot happen, it DID.

Mike
- --
Mike Lawrie
Director Computing Services, Rhodes University, South Africa
....................<ccml@hippo.ru.ac.za>..........................
Rhodes University condemns racism and racial segregation