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- From: bontchev@fbihh.informatik.uni-hamburg.de (Vesselin Bontchev)
- Newsgroups: comp.virus
- Subject: Re: Infection question (was: Viral Based Distribution System)
- Message-ID: <0005.9301221631.AA12947@barnabas.cert.org>
- Date: 14 Jan 93 11:04:37 GMT
- Sender: virus-l@lehigh.edu
- Lines: 39
- Approved: news@netnews.cc.lehigh.edu
-
- celustka@sun.felk.cvut.cs (Celustkova-k336-doktorand(Richta)) writes:
-
- > Cite from your paper "Possible Virus Attacks Against Integrity
- > Programs and How To Prevent Them", EICAR Conference,Munich,December
- > 1992 (stresses are mine):
-
- [citation deleted]
-
- > Cite from Virus-L FAQ :
-
- [citation deleted]
-
- Well, having in mind that I have participated the writing of both my
- paper and the Virus-L FAQ, I obviously know what's written in them...
- :-)
-
- > Companion viruses don't modify files but information about them and
- > create new files which is executed instead of the intended, i.e. they
- > modify the previous state of the system. In that way they could cause
-
- Yes, I know that, of course... I was just pointing out that the
- "common" understanding of the term "virus" (by the end user) as
- "something that messes with my files" is not always correct, even for
- the currently existing types of viruses on the IBM PC. These viruses
- (boot sector infectors, file system infectors, companion viruses) do
- not match even Dr. Cohen's natural-language definition of the term
- "virus", unless you define "program" and "attach" too broadly. And
- IF you define them broadly enough, a "worm" will fit in the definition
- of the term "virus" too. They are essentially one and the same thing,
- from the mathematical point of view... Nevertheless, for reasons of
- convenience, we prefer to differentiate between them in practice.
-
- Regards,
- Vesselin
- - --
- Vesselin Vladimirov Bontchev Virus Test Center, University of Hamburg
- Tel.:+49-40-54715-224, Fax: +49-40-54715-226 Fachbereich Informatik - AGN
- < PGP 2.1 public key available on request. > Vogt-Koelln-Strasse 30, rm. 107 C
- e-mail: bontchev@fbihh.informatik.uni-hamburg.de D-2000 Hamburg 54, Germany
-