NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/comp/os/linux/25199

Text File | 1993-01-23 | 1.6 KB | 37 lines

Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Path: sparky!uunet!enterpoop.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!daemon
From: [e-mail] (Theodore Ts'o)
Subject: Re: Rawrite virus?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (Mr Background)
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Theodore Ts'o)
Organization: The Internet
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 20:27:08 GMT
Lines: 25

   From: [e-mail] (Philip Perucci)
   Date: 22 Jan 93 02:24:41 GMT

   Did I read correctly in the channels?  Is there a rawrite virus?

It sounds like someone obtained a version of rawrite from a friend, who
got it from some unknown source, and it had some sort of stealth virus
on it that their virus detection program had never seen before.  As far
as I know, no rawrite binary freshly ftp'ed from one of the core FTP
servers has been implicated.

From the description, which have had relatively little information, this
is a MS-DOS virus, and is not specific to rawrite, except that the
person who reported getting hit by this virus claimed that the vector of
infection came from an rawrite binary of unknown vitange when he tried
to install Linux.

The copy of rawrite on tsx-11 is dated Novemeber 5, 1991, which is when
I ftp'ed it off of wuarchive.wustl.edu.  It is thus reasonably certain
that the copy on tsx-11 should be free of viruses, since it has been on
tsx-11 for so long without any complaints up until now.  In any case,
the C source code for rawrite is provided, so if you're really paranoid,
and have a DOS C compiler, you can just compile the program yourself.

                            - Ted