🚀 go-pugleaf

CXT105@PSUVM.PSU.EDU (Christopher Tate) writes:
>The big problem with this is that since the WDEF-removal code is itself
>a virus, it stands a big chance of causing the same problems as any other
>virus -- crashes due to poorly written code.

>There have been no viruses written to date for the Macintosh which
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>deliberately cause damage to the system (*).  All of the problems caused
                                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>by existing viruses are in fact the result of bugs in the viruses, which
>causes interference with other programs under certain circumstances.
>Since the above-mentioned inoculation program would be a virus itself,
>it might well cause problems itself.

I have seen this assertion made a half dozen times.  Can somebody
either confirm or deny the report I read in either MacUser or MacWorld
(circa October 1988) that there is malicious code in the SCORES virus
which is only activated by the presence on a disk volume of files
containing certain creator IDs belonging to Electronic Data Systems
(EDS), the company which Ross Perot sold to GM?  I apologize if this
is an old question that has been answered a hundred times already.

>(*)  Mosaic and Font Finder are not viruses (they do not replicate), but
>     are instead "trojan horses" -- destructive code hidden within an
>     innocuous-seeming program.

>Christopher Tate                       |

- ----------
Steve Lasich   Micro Lab Coordinator
steve@clmqt.marquette.mi.us
.rutgers!mailrus!sharkey!clmqt!steve