From:	Brian W Allison <ballison@*******.WAM.UMD.EDU>
Subject:	Re: **VIRUS ALERT***
Date:	Tue, 3 Dec 1996 23:11:37 -0500

On Tue, 3 Dec 1996, Bull wrote:

> I recieved this from another list. I have no idea as to the validity of it,
> but just in case, I thought I should forward it to you all...
>
> Oh, and if this is another hoax, old news, or whatever... My apologies to
> ya... Just ignore this then, and chalk it up to a gullible decker...:):)
>
> Bull
>
> >Fyi.......
> >
> >Person(s) unknown is sending email under the title Deeyenda nationwide.
> >If you get anything with this name in it, do not download the file. It
> >has a virus that rewrites your hard drive, obliterates anything on it.
> >Please be careful and forward this warning to anyone you care about.

[ dumb joke removed ]

The first time I saw something like this, it was a DOS batch file beign
mailed to people

---
format c:
---


was the file. Yep, that was a virus.. *hahahaha* It went out on 1 April
of that year.


Ok, if someone sends you an e-mail message, can it run a binary on your
machine w/o you invoking it purposefully?

Unix: no. Even if you do, if ~root then it won't format anything.
DOS,
Windows,
Win95 : not in general. If you open a Word file, and it contains
certain types of macros, these can be evaluated at load-time. They can
contain commands, including virus code. (There was a big squeal in media a
year or so ago, but M$oft's marketing dept quickly overpowered the truth
of it with "We're fixing it!" responses. The commentary died down quickly
after that.)
Mac : ?
Vic20 : Who cares? *hehehehe*



But no, in *general*, if you get e-mail, then how can it be a virus if
there's no way to determine (from the sender's POV) what your OS is?
Viruses are OS-specific, sometimes even dependent on a particular software
package (like M$ Word).






Brian W. Allison

Computer Scientist Vocalist Would-be Poet Bicycler Scuba Diver
Hacker(0xca) Nerd(79) GenX(21) #include <witticism.h>
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~ballison

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