Computer virus

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Jump to: navigation, search A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without the permission or knowledge of the user. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, adware and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability. A true virus can only spread from one computer to another (in some form of executable code) when its host is taken to the target computer; for instance because a user sent it over a network or the Internet, or carried it on a removable medium such as a floppy disk, CD, or USB drive. Viruses can increase their chances of spreading to other computers by infecting files on a network file system or a file system that is accessed by another computer. [1][2] Viruses are sometimes confused with computer worms and Trojan horses, which are technically different. A worm can spread itself to other computers without needing to be transferred as part of a host, and a Trojan horse is a program that appears harmless but has a hidden agenda. Worms and Trojans, like viruses, may cause harm to either a computer system's hosted data, functional performance, or networking throughput, when they are executed. Some viruses and other malware have symptoms noticeable to the computer user, but most are surreptitious. This makes it hard for the average user to notice, find and disable and is why specialist anti-virus programs are now commonplace. Most personal computers are now connected to the Internet and to local area networks, facilitating the spread of malicious code. Today's viruses may also take advantage of network services such as the World Wide Web, e-mail, Instant Messaging and file sharing systems to spread, blurring the line between viruses and worms. Furthermore, some sources use an alternative terminology in which a virus is any form of selfreplicating malware.

Contents
[hide]

1 History 2 Infection strategies o 2.1 Nonresident viruses o 2.2 Resident viruses 3 Vectors and hosts 4 Methods to avoid detection o 4.1 Avoiding bait files and other undesirable hosts o 4.2 Stealth 4.2.1 Self-modification

4.2.2 Encryption with a variable key 4.2.3 Polymorphic code 4.2.4 Metamorphic code 5 Vulnerability and countermeasures o 5.1 The vulnerability of operating systems to viruses o 5.2 The role of software development o 5.3 Anti-virus software and other preventive measures o 5.4 Recovery methods 5.4.1 Virus removal 5.4.2 Operating system reinstallation 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links
o

9.1 Other texts

History
The Creeper virus was first detected on ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet in the early 1970s.[3] Creeper was an experimental self-replicating program written by Bob Thomas at BBN in 1971.[4] Creeper used the ARPANET to infect DEC PDP-10 computers running the TENEX operating system. Creeper gained access via the ARPANET and copied itself to the remote system where the message, "I'm the creeper, catch me if you can!" was displayed. The Reaper program was created to delete Creeper.
[5]

A common misconception is that a program called "Rother J" was the first computer virus to appear "in the wild" that is, outside the single computer or lab where it was created, but that claim is false. See the Timeline of notable computer viruses and worms for other earlier viruses. It was, however, the first virus to infect computers "in the home." Written in 1982 by Richard Skrenta, it attached itself to the Apple DOS 3.3 operating system and spread via floppy disk.[6] This virus was originally a joke, created by a high school student. It was injected in a game on a floppy disk. On its 50th use the Elk Cloner virus would be activated, infecting the computer and displaying a short poem beginning "Elk Cloner: The program with a personality." The first PC virus in the wild was a boot sector virus dubbed (c)Brain[7], created in 1986 by the Farooq Alvi Brothers, operating out of Lahore, Pakistan. The brothers reportedly created the virus to deter pirated copies of software they had written. However, analysts have claimed that the Ashar virus, a variant of Brain, possibly predated it based on code within the virus.[original research?] Before computer networks became widespread, most viruses spread on removable media, particularly floppy disks. In the early days of the personal computer, many users

regularly exchanged information and programs on floppies. Some viruses spread by infecting programs stored on these disks, while others installed themselves into the disk boot sector, ensuring that they would be run when the user booted the computer from the disk, usually inadvertently. PCs of the era would attempt to boot first from a floppy if one had been left in the drive. This was the most successful infection strategy until floppy disks fell from favour and boot sector viruses were the most common in the wild for many years.[8]. Traditional computer viruses emerged in the 1980s, driven by the spread of personal computers and the resultant increase in BBS, modem use, and software sharing. Bulletin board driven software sharing contributed directly to the spread of Trojan horse programs, and viruses were written to infect popularly traded software. Shareware and bootleg software were equally common vectors for viruses on BBS's.[citation needed] Within the "pirate scene" of hobbyists trading illicit copies of retail software, traders in a hurry to obtain the latest applications and were easy targets for viruses.[original research?] Since the mid-1990s, macro viruses have become common. Most of these viruses are written in the scripting languages for Microsoft programs such as Word and Excel and spread throughout Microsoft Office by infecting documents and spreadsheets. Since Word and Excel were also available for Mac OS, most could also spread onto Macintosh computers as well. Although the majority of these viruses did not have the ability to send infected e-mail, those viruses which did took advantage of the Microsoft Outlook COM interface.[citation needed] Macro viruses pose unique problems for detection software[citation needed]. For example, some versions of Microsoft Word allowed macros to replicate themselves with additional blank lines. The virus behaved identically but would be misidentified as a new virus. Additionally, if two macro viruses simultaneously infect a document, the combination of the two, if also self-replicating, can appear as a "mating" of the two and would likely be detected as a virus unique from the "parents."[9] A virus may also send a web address link as an instant message to all the contacts on an infected machine. If the recipient, thinking the link is from a friend (a trusted source) follows the link to the website, the virus hosted at the site may be able to infect this new computer and continue propagating. The newest species of the virus family is the cross-site scripting virus.[citation needed] The virus emerged from research and was academically demonstrated in 2005.[10] This virus utilizes cross-site scripting vulnerabilities to propagate. Since 2005 there have been multiple instances of the cross-site scripting viruses in the wild, most notable sites affected have been MySpace and Yahoo.

Infection strategies
In order to replicate itself, a virus must be permitted to execute code and write to memory. For this reason, many viruses attach themselves to executable files that may be

part of legitimate programs. If a user attempts to launch an infected program, the virus' code may be executed alongside. Viruses can be divided into two types, on the basis of their behavior when they are executed. Nonresident viruses immediately search for other hosts that can be infected, infect these targets, and finally transfer control to the application program they infected. Resident viruses do not search for hosts when they are started. Instead, a resident virus loads itself into memory on execution and transfers control to the host program. The virus stays active in the background and infects new hosts when those files are accessed by other programs or the operating system itself.

Nonresident viruses
Nonresident viruses can be thought of as consisting of a finder module and a replication module. The finder module is responsible for finding new files to infect. For each new executable file the finder module encounters, it calls the replication module to infect that file.[11]

Resident viruses
Resident viruses contain a replication module that is similar to the one that is employed by nonresident viruses. However, this module is not called by a finder module. Instead, the virus loads the replication module into memory when it is executed and ensures that this module is executed each time the operating system is called to perform a certain operation. For example, the replication module can be called each time the operating system executes a file. In this case, the virus infects every suitable program that is executed on the computer. Resident viruses are sometimes subdivided into a category of fast infectors and a category of slow infectors. Fast infectors are designed to infect as many files as possible. For instance, a fast infector can infect every potential host file that is accessed. This poses a special problem to anti-virus software, since a virus scanner will access every potential host file on a computer when it performs a system-wide scan. If the virus scanner fails to notice that such a virus is present in memory, the virus can "piggy-back" on the virus scanner and in this way infect all files that are scanned. Fast infectors rely on their fast infection rate to spread. The disadvantage of this method is that infecting many files may make detection more likely, because the virus may slow down a computer or perform many suspicious actions that can be noticed by anti-virus software. Slow infectors, on the other hand, are designed to infect hosts infrequently. For instance, some slow infectors only infect files when they are copied. Slow infectors are designed to avoid detection by limiting their actions: they are less likely to slow down a computer noticeably, and will at most infrequently trigger anti-virus software that detects suspicious behavior by programs. The slow infector approach does not seem very successful, however.

Creeper virus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search The Creeper virus was an experimental self-replicating program written by Bob Thomas at BBN in 1971.[1] Creeper infected DEC PDP-10 computers running the TENEX operating system. Creeper gained access via the ARPANET and copied itself to the remote system where the message, "I'm the creeper, catch me if you can!" was displayed. The Reaper program was created to delete Creeper

ARPANET
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

ARPANET logic map, March 1977. The ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) developed by ARPA of the United States Department of Defense during the Cold War, was the world's first operational packet switching network, and the predecessor of the global Internet. Packet switching, now the dominant basis for both data and voice communication worldwide, was a new and important concept in data communications. Previously, data communication was based on the idea of circuit switching, as in the old typical telephone circuit, where a dedicated circuit is tied up for the duration of the call and communication is only possible with the single party on the other end of the circuit. With packet switching, a system could use one communication link to communicate with more than one machine by disassembling data into datagraphs, then gather these as packets. Not only could the link be shared (much as a single post box can be used to post letters to different destinations), but each packet could be routed independently of other packets. A form of packet switching designed by Lincoln Laboratory scientist Lawrence Roberts underlay the design of ARPANET.[1]

Elk Cloner
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Elk Cloner
Common name Elk Cloner

Technical name N/A Aliases Family Classification Type Subtype Isolation N/A N/A Virus Apple II series Boot sector virus 1982

Point of isolation Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, United States Point of Origin Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, United States Author(s) Rich Skrenta

Elk Cloner is one of the first known microcomputer viruses that spread "in the wild," i.e., outside the computer system or lab in which it was written. It was written around 1982 by a 15-year-old high school student named Rich Skrenta for Apple II systems.

Contents

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1 Infection and symptoms 2 Development 3 Distribution 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Infection and symptoms

Elk Cloner spread by infecting the Apple II operating system using a technique now known as a "boot sector" virus. If a computer booted from an infected floppy disk, a copy of the virus was placed in the computer's memory. When an uninfected disk was inserted into the computer, Elk Cloner would be copied to the disk, thus allowing it to spread from disk to disk. An infected computer would display a short poem on every 50th boot. Elk Cloner did not cause deliberate harm, but Apple DOS disks without a standard image had their reserved tracks overwritten.[1] The aforementioned poem follows:
Elk Cloner: The program with a personality It will get on all your disks It will infiltrate your chips Yes, it's Cloner! It will stick to you like glue It will modify RAM too Send in the Cloner!

[edit] Development
Elk Cloner was created in 1982 by Rich Skrenta, a 15-year-old high school student. Skrenta was already distrusted by his friends because, in illegally sharing computer games and software, he would often alter the floppy disks to shut down or display taunting on-screen messages. Because his friends no longer trusted his disks, Skrenta thought of methods to alter floppy disks without physically touching them. During a winter break from the Mt. Lebanon High School in Pennsylvania, United States, Skrenta discovered how to launch the messages automatically on his Apple II computer. He developed what is now known as a boot sector virus, and began circulating it in early 1982 among high school friends and a local computer club. 25 years later in 2007, Skrenta called it "some dumb little practical joke."[2][3][4]

[edit] Distribution

According to contemporary reports, the virus was rather contagious, successfully infecting the floppies of most people Skrenta knew, and upsetting many of them. Part of the "success," of course, was that people were not at all wary of the potential problem (virus infection could have been avoided by not inserting floppies into computers without hard-booting them first), nor were virus scanners or cleaners available. The virus could still be removed, but it required an elaborate manual effort.

Vectors and hosts

Viruses have targeted various types of transmission media or hosts. This list is not exhaustive:

Binary executable files (such as COM files and EXE files in MS-DOS, Portable Executable files in Microsoft Windows, and ELF files in Linux) Volume Boot Records of floppy disks and hard disk partitions The master boot record (MBR) of a hard disk General-purpose script files (such as batch files in MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows, VBScript files, and shell script files on Unix-like platforms). Application-specific script files (such as Telix-scripts) Documents that can contain macros (such as Microsoft Word documents, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, AmiPro documents, and Microsoft Access database files) Cross-site scripting vulnerabilities in web applications Arbitrary computer files. An exploitable buffer overflow, format string, race condition or other exploitable bug in a program which reads the file could be used to trigger the execution of code hidden within it. Most bugs of this type can be made more difficult to exploit in computer architectures with protection features such as an execute disable bit and/or address space layout randomization.

PDFs, like HTML, may link to malicious code.[citation needed]PDFs can also be infected with malicious code. In operating systems that use file extensions to determine program associations (such as Microsoft Windows), the extensions may be hidden from the user by default. This makes it possible to create a file that is of a different type than it appears to the user. For example, a executable may be created named "picture.png.exe", in which the user sees only "picture.png" and therefore assumes that this file is an image and most likely is safe.

Methods to avoid detection

In order to avoid detection by users, some viruses employ different kinds of deception. Some old viruses, especially on the MS-DOS platform, make sure that the "last modified" date of a host file stays the same when the file is infected by the virus. This approach does not fool anti-virus software, however, especially those which maintain and date Cyclic redundancy checks on file changes.

Some viruses can infect files without increasing their sizes or damaging the files. They accomplish this by overwriting unused areas of executable files. These are called cavity viruses. For example the CIH virus, or Chernobyl Virus, infects Portable Executable files. Because those files have many empty gaps, the virus, which was 1 KB in length, did not add to the size of the file. Some viruses try to avoid detection by killing the tasks associated with antivirus software before it can detect them. As computers and operating systems grow larger and more complex, old hiding techniques need to be updated or replaced. Defending a computer against viruses may demand that a file system migrate towards detailed and explicit permission for every kind of file access.

Avoiding bait files and other undesirable hosts

A virus needs to infect hosts in order to spread further. In some cases, it might be a bad idea to infect a host program. For example, many anti-virus programs perform an integrity check of their own code. Infecting such programs will therefore increase the likelihood that the virus is detected. For this reason, some viruses are programmed not to infect programs that are known to be part of anti-virus software. Another type of host that viruses sometimes avoid is bait files. Bait files (or goat files) are files that are specially created by anti-virus software, or by anti-virus professionals themselves, to be infected by a virus. These files can be created for various reasons, all of which are related to the detection of the virus:

Anti-virus professionals can use bait files to take a sample of a virus (i.e. a copy of a program file that is infected by the virus). It is more practical to store and exchange a small, infected bait file, than to exchange a large application program that has been infected by the virus. Anti-virus professionals can use bait files to study the behavior of a virus and evaluate detection methods. This is especially useful when the virus is polymorphic. In this case, the virus can be made to infect a large number of bait files. The infected files can be used to test whether a virus scanner detects all versions of the virus. Some anti-virus software employs bait files that are accessed regularly. When these files are modified, the anti-virus software warns the user that a virus is probably active on the system.

Since bait files are used to detect the virus, or to make detection possible, a virus can benefit from not infecting them. Viruses typically do this by avoiding suspicious programs, such as small program files or programs that contain certain patterns of 'garbage instructions'. A related strategy to make baiting difficult is sparse infection. Sometimes, sparse infectors do not infect a host file that would be a suitable candidate for infection in other

circumstances. For example, a virus can decide on a random basis whether to infect a file or not, or a virus can only infect host files on particular days of the week.

Stealth
Some viruses try to trick anti-virus software by intercepting its requests to the operating system. A virus can hide itself by intercepting the anti-virus softwares request to read the file and passing the request to the virus, instead of the OS. The virus can then return an uninfected version of the file to the anti-virus software, so that it seems that the file is "clean". Modern anti-virus software employs various techniques to counter stealth mechanisms of viruses. The only completely reliable method to avoid stealth is to boot from a medium that is known to be clean.

Self-modification
Most modern antivirus programs try to find virus-patterns inside ordinary programs by scanning them for so-called virus signatures. A signature is a characteristic byte-pattern that is part of a certain virus or family of viruses. If a virus scanner finds such a pattern in a file, it notifies the user that the file is infected. The user can then delete, or (in some cases) "clean" or "heal" the infected file. Some viruses employ techniques that make detection by means of signatures difficult but probably not impossible. These viruses modify their code on each infection. That is, each infected file contains a different variant of the virus.

Encryption with a variable key

A more advanced method is the use of simple encryption to encipher the virus. In this case, the virus consists of a small decrypting module and an encrypted copy of the virus code. If the virus is encrypted with a different key for each infected file, the only part of the virus that remains constant is the decrypting module, which would (for example) be appended to the end. In this case, a virus scanner cannot directly detect the virus using signatures, but it can still detect the decrypting module, which still makes indirect detection of the virus possible. Since these would be symmetric keys, stored on the infected host, it is in fact entirely possible to decrypt the final virus, but that probably isn't required, since self-modifying code is such a rarity that it may be reason for virus scanners to at least flag the file as suspicious. An old, but compact, encryption involves XORing each byte in a virus with a constant, so that the exclusive-or operation had only to be repeated for decryption. It is suspicious code that modifies itself, so the code to do the encryption/decryption may be part of the signature in many virus definitions.

Polymorphic code
Polymorphic code was the first technique that posed a serious threat to virus scanners. Just like regular encrypted viruses, a polymorphic virus infects files with an encrypted

copy of itself, which is decoded by a decryption module. In the case of polymorphic viruses, however, this decryption module is also modified on each infection. A wellwritten polymorphic virus therefore has no parts which remain identical between infections, making it very difficult to detect directly using signatures. Anti-virus software can detect it by decrypting the viruses using an emulator, or by statistical pattern analysis of the encrypted virus body. To enable polymorphic code, the virus has to have a polymorphic engine (also called mutating engine or mutation engine) somewhere in its encrypted body. See Polymorphic code for technical detail on how such engines operate.
[12]

Some viruses employ polymorphic code in a way that constrains the mutation rate of the virus significantly. For example, a virus can be programmed to mutate only slightly over time, or it can be programmed to refrain from mutating when it infects a file on a computer that already contains copies of the virus. The advantage of using such slow polymorphic code is that it makes it more difficult for anti-virus professionals to obtain representative samples of the virus, because bait files that are infected in one run will typically contain identical or similar samples of the virus. This will make it more likely that the detection by the virus scanner will be unreliable, and that some instances of the virus may be able to avoid detection.

Metamorphic code
To avoid being detected by emulation, some viruses rewrite themselves completely each time they are to infect new executables. Viruses that use this technique are said to be metamorphic. To enable metamorphism, a metamorphic engine is needed. A metamorphic virus is usually very large and complex. For example, W32/Simile consisted of over 14000 lines of Assembly language code, 90% of which is part of the metamorphic engine.[13][14]

Vulnerability and countermeasures

The vulnerability of operating systems to viruses
Just as genetic diversity in a population decreases the chance of a single disease wiping out a population, the diversity of software systems on a network similarly limits the destructive potential of viruses. This became a particular concern in the 1990s, when Microsoft gained market dominance in desktop operating systems and office suites. The users of Microsoft software (especially networking software such as Microsoft Outlook and Internet Explorer) are especially vulnerable to the spread of viruses. Microsoft software is targeted by virus writers due to their desktop dominance, and is often criticized for including many errors and holes for virus writers to exploit. Integrated and non-integrated Microsoft applications (such as Microsoft Office) and applications with scripting languages with access to the file system (for example Visual Basic Script (VBS), and applications with networking features) are also particularly vulnerable.

Although Windows is by far the most popular operating system for virus writers, some viruses also exist on other platforms. Any operating system that allows third-party programs to run can theoretically run viruses. Some operating systems are less secure than others. Unix-based OS's (and NTFS-aware applications on Windows NT based platforms) only allow their users to run executables within their own protected memory space. An Internet based research revealed that there were cases when people willingly pressed a particular button to download a virus. Security analyst Didier Stevens ran a half year advertising campaign on Google AdWords which said "Is your PC virus-free? Get it infected here!". The result was 409 clicks.[15][16] As of 2006, there are relatively few security exploits[17] targeting Mac OS X (with a Unixbased file system and kernel). The number of viruses for the older Apple operating systems, known as Mac OS Classic, varies greatly from source to source, with Apple stating that there are only four known viruses, and independent sources stating there are as many as 63 viruses. It is safe to say that Macs are less likely to be targeted because of low market share and thus a Mac-specific virus could only infect a small proportion of computers (making the effort less desirable). Virus vulnerability between Macs and Windows is a chief selling point, one that Apple uses in their Get a Mac advertising.[18] Windows and Unix have similar scripting abilities, but while Unix natively blocks normal users from having access to make changes to the operating system environment, older copies of Windows such as Windows 95 and 98 do not. In 1997, when a virus for Linux was released known as "Bliss" leading antivirus vendors issued warnings that Unix-like systems could fall prey to viruses just like Windows.[19] The Bliss virus may be considered characteristic of viruses as opposed to worms on Unix systems. Bliss requires that the user run it explicitly (so it is a trojan), and it can only infect programs that the user has the access to modify. Unlike Windows users, most Unix users do not log in as an administrator user except to install or configure software; as a result, even if a user ran the virus, it could not harm their operating system. The Bliss virus never became widespread, and remains chiefly a research curiosity. Its creator later posted the source code to Usenet, allowing researchers to see how it worked.[20]

The role of software development

Because software is often designed with security features to prevent unauthorized use of system resources, many viruses must exploit software bugs in a system or application to spread. Software development strategies that produce large numbers of bugs will generally also produce potential exploits.

Anti-virus software and other preventive measures

Many users install anti-virus software that can detect and eliminate known viruses after the computer downloads or runs the executable. There are two common methods that an anti-virus software application uses to detect viruses. The first, and by far the most

common method of virus detection is using a list of virus signature definitions. This works by examining the content of the computer's memory (its RAM, and boot sectors) and the files stored on fixed or removable drives (hard drives, floppy drives), and comparing those files against a database of known virus "signatures". The disadvantage of this detection method is that users are only protected from viruses that pre-date their last virus definition update. The second method is to use a heuristic algorithm to find viruses based on common behaviors. This method has the ability to detect viruses that anti-virus security firms have yet to create a signature for. Some anti-virus programs are able to scan opened files in addition to sent and received emails 'on the fly' in a similar manner. This practice is known as "on-access scanning." Anti-virus software does not change the underlying capability of host software to transmit viruses. Users must update their software regularly to patch security holes. Anti-virus software also needs to be regularly updated in order to prevent the latest threats. One may also minimise the damage done by viruses by making regular backups of data (and the Operating Systems) on different media, that are either kept unconnected to the system (most of the time), read-only or not accessible for other reasons, such as using different file systems. This way, if data is lost through a virus, one can start again using the backup (which should preferably be recent). A notable exception to this rule is the Gammima virus, which propagates via infected removable media (specifically flash drives) [21] [22]. If a backup session on optical media like CD and DVD is closed, it becomes read-only and can no longer be affected by a virus (so long as a virus or infected file was not copied onto the CD/DVD). Likewise, an Operating System on a bootable can be used to start the computer if the installed Operating Systems become unusable. Another method is to use different Operating Systems on different file systems. A virus is not likely to affect both. Data backups can also be put on different file systems. For example, Linux requires specific software to write to NTFS partitions, so if one does not install such software and uses a separate installation of MS Windows to make the backups on an NTFS partition, the backup should remain safe from any Linux viruses. Likewise, MS Windows can not read file systems like ext3, so if one normally uses MS Windows, the backups can be made on an ext3 partition using a Linux installation.

Recovery methods
Once a computer has been compromised by a virus, it is usually unsafe to continue using the same computer without completely reinstalling the operating system. However, there are a number of recovery options that exist after a computer has a virus. These actions depend on severity of the type of virus.

Virus removal
One possibility on Windows Me, Windows XP and Windows Vista is a tool known as System Restore, which restores the registry and critical system files to a previous checkpoint. Often a virus will cause a system to hang, and a subsequent hard reboot will render a system restore point from the same day corrupt. Restore points from previous

days should work provided the virus is not designed to corrupt the restore files or also exists in previous restore points [23]. Some viruses, however, disable system restore and other important tools such as Task Manager and Command Prompt. An example of a virus that does this is CiaDoor. Administrators have the option to disable such tools from limited users for various reasons. The virus modifies the registry to do the same, except, when the Administrator is controlling the computer, it blocks all users from accessing the tools. When an infected tool activates it gives the message "Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator.", even if the user trying to open the program is the administrator. Users running a Microsoft operating system can access Microsoft's website to run a free scan, provided they have their 20-digit registration number.

Operating system reinstallation

Reinstalling the operating system is another approach to virus removal. It involves simply reformatting the OS partition and installing the OS from its original media, or imaging the partition with a clean backup image (Taken with Ghost or Acronis for example). This method has the benefits of being simple to do, being faster than running multiple antivirus scans, and is guaranteed to remove any malware. Downsides include having to reinstall all other software (And reconfiguring them to user preference) as well as the operating system. User data can be backed up by booting off of a Live CD or putting the hard drive into another computer and booting from the other computer's operating system (Though care must be taken not to transfer the virus to the new computer).

Virus hoax
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from List of computer virus hoaxes) Jump to: navigation, search
Computer security portal

A computer virus hoax is a false email message warning the recipient of a virus that is going around. The message usually serves as a chain e-mail that tells the recipient to forward it to everyone they know.

Contents
[hide]

1 Clues 2 List of computer virus hoaxes 3 References

4 See also 5 External links

[edit] Clues
Most hoaxes are easily identified by the fact that they say the virus will do nearly impossible things, like blow up the recipient's computer and set it on fire. They often claim to be from reputable organizations such as Microsoft and IBM, but include emotive language and encouragement to forward the message which would not come from an official source. Virus hoaxes are usually harmless, and do nothing more than annoy people who know it's a hoax or waste the time of people who forward the message. However, a number of hoaxes have warned users that vital system files are viruses, and encourage the user to delete the file, possibly damaging the system. An example of this is the jdbgmgr.exe virus hoax. Some consider virus hoaxes, and other chain e-mails to be a computer worm in and of themselves. They replicate by exploiting users' ignorance or emotional responses. Hoaxes are not to be confused with computer pranks. Computer pranks are programs that perform unwanted and annoying actions on a computer, like randomly move the mouse. The consensus of anti-virus specialists is that recipients should delete virus hoaxes instead of forwarding them. For example, McAfee says: "We are advising users who receive the email to delete it and DO NOT pass it on as this is how an email HOAX propagates." [1]

[edit] List of computer virus hoaxes

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it. Name Alias(es) Origin Author References Description

Invitation attachment (Allright now/I'm (computer virus just sayin) hoax)

Michiana Shores, Long Beach, Jamestown Jim Manor, Michigan Flanagan City (IN), Schaumburg (IL)

The invitation virus hoax i an e-mail spam in 2006 th computer users to delete a with any type of attachmen stated "invitation" because computer virus. This is als as the Olympic Torch viru (see below).

AIDS

(none)

Unknown

Unknown

Not to be confused with A (computer virus) or AIDS horse), this hoax is about a existent virus that is purpo distributed via electronic m messages that have "OPEN COOL! :)" as their subject

Amish Virus

UNIX virus, Mac OS 9 virus, Discount Unknown virus and many others

Unknown

This joke email claims to b authored by the amish who computers or electricity to viruses, thus ask you to de own hard drive manually a forwarding the message to friends.

Antichrist

(none)

Monmouth(uk)

Dylan Nicholas

This is a hoax that warns a supposed virus discovered Microsoft and Mcafee nam "Antichrist" telling the use installed via an e-mail wit subject of:"SURPRISE?!! after which, destroys the quadearasusalim.bdset one most important sectors of disk rendering it unusable.

Budweiser Frogs BUDSAVER.EXE

Unknown

Supposedly would erase th Unknown Snopes.com hard drive and steal the us name and password.

Goodtimes virus (none)

Unknown

Unknown

Warnings about a compute named "Good Times" beg passed around among Inte in 1994. The Goodtimes v supposedly transmitted via bearing the subject header Times" or "Goodtimes," h virus's name, and the warn recommended deleting any email unread. The virus de

the warnings did not exist, warnings themselves, were virus-like.

Jdbgmgr.exe

(bear.a

Unknown

Unknown

The jdbgmgr.exe virus hoa involved an e-mail spam i advised computer users to file named jdbgmgr.exe be was a computer virus. jdbg which had a little teddy be icon (The Microsoft Bear) actually a valid Microsoft file, the Debugger Registr (also known as Java Debu Manager, hence jdbgmgr).

Life is beautiful Life is wonderful

Unknown

Unknown

The hoax was spread throu Internet around January 20 of a virus attached to an ewhich was spread around Internet. The attached file supposedly called "Life is beautiful.pps".

NVISION DESIGN, INC. games ("Frogapult," "Elfbowl")

Sometimes included their other game Unknown "Y2KGame"

Unknown Symantec

Programs were actual, leg computer games; author cl they were viruses which w "wipe out" the user's hard Christmas Day.

Olympic Torch

Postcard

Unknown

Unknown

Olympic Torch is a compu hoax sent out by e-mail. T mails first appeared in Feb 2006. The "virus" referred e-mail does not actually ex hoax e-mail warns recipien recent outbreak of "Olymp viruses, contained in e-ma "Invitation", which erase t disk of the user's compute opened. The hoax email fu

purports the virus to be acknowledged by such rep sources as CNN, McAfee Microsoft as one of the mo dangerous viruses yet repo

Of course this email, whic started in February 2006, i delete when you want. "Weird Al" Yankovic's song Unknown "Virus Alert"

Stinky cheese

Virus Alert

Note that the song, "Virus in fact a parody of the exa claims that the authors of c viruses often make up to tr people/delete a file.

SULFNBK.EXE none Warning

Unknown

Unknown

SULFNBK.EXE (short fo Utility for Long File Nam is an internal component o Microsoft Windows opera system (in Windows 98 an Windows Me) for restorin names. The component be famous in the early 2000s subject of an e-mail hoax. claimed that SULFNBK.E virus, and contained instru locate and delete the file. W instructions worked, they needless and (in some rare example, when the long fi are damaged and need to b can cause disruptions, as SULFNBK.EXE is not a v instead an operating system component.

Tuxissa

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The virus is based on the M virus, with its aim to insta onto the victim's computer the owner's notice. It is sp mail, contained within a m titled "Important Message Windows Security". It firs the virus to other compute downloads a stripped-dow of Slackware, and uncomp

onto the hard disk. The W Registry is finally deleted, boot options changed. The virus destroys itself when the computer at the end, w user facing the Linux login

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History of Viruses Types of Viruses Computer Viruses Protect Yourself Prevent Macro-Viruses Spreading of Viruses Online Virus Scan Avoid Computer Worms Virus Protection Email Virus Network Virus Stealth Virus Multipartite Virus FAT Virus Program Infectors File Infectors Companion Virus Polymorphic Virus Macro Virus Boot Infectors Overwriting Viruses Resident Virus Virus Repair Virus scan "Good" Computer

Computer Viruses

The Common Types of Computer Viruses

Computer viruses are similar to biological viruses in the way they multiply in number and in the way they need a host to survive. However, in both scenarios there must be a cause, such a weak immune system or an expired anti-virus program, in order for the virus to penetrate and spread. Having a reliable anti-virus program is the best solution. Just as a biological virus spreads by injecting its DNA into a host cell, whereas a computer virus needs to attach itself to a document or program to infect other computers and programs.

Spyware has man of getting onto yo computer, such a

When you downlo programs - particu freeware, or peersharing programs

More covertly, spy can install itself ju The way a computer virus infiltrates your PC depends on the type of virus it is. Because all computers visiting certain site viruses have their own features and factors that make them unique and dangerous to the health of your prompting you to computer. Making it important than ever to learn about the different types of computer viruses lurking in download an appl the corners of cyberspace and on the fringes of your hard drive. The advantage of learning more about see the site prope these computer viruses is two fold. First, you'll gain valuable knowledge, and second you'll be able to better prevent and deal with a computer virus when and if it preys your computer. ActiveX controls. pesky spyware m Due to the many different types of computer viruses, it can be confusing at times to diagnose what kind prompt you to ins of virus your computer is suffering from. To make the identifying process easier, we've listed the three themselves while your Internet brow basic types of viruses that you will likely encounter. These computer viruses include:

Trojan Horses Worms Email Viruses

Recovering from a Virus The Trojan virus gets its name from an incident that occurs in Homer's Iliad. Similar to how the Greeks Threat of RFID Viruses the city. A Trojan horse appears to be nothing more than an interesting computer program or file, such Mac OS X: The First as "saxophone.wav file" on the computer of user who's interested in collecting sound samples. The The First Linux Virus Do You Need Antivirus Linux Viruses Difference Between Slapper Worm Lupper Worm The History of Worms The Nimda Worm Types of Recent Worms Benevolent Worms

in Homer's poem sent an army of men, hidden in a wooden horse, to the Trojans to get into the wall of Trojan virus once on your computer, doesn't reproduce, but instead makes your computer susceptible to malicious intruders by allowing them to access and read your files. Making this type of virus extremely dangerous to your computer's security and your personal privacy. Therefore, you should avoid downloading programs or files from sites if you're not 100 percent positive of what the file or program does.

n?

s. Worms

A Worm is a virus program that copies and multiplies itself by using computer networks and security flaws. Worms are more complex than Trojan viruses, and usually attack multi-user systems such as Unix environments and can spread over corporate networks via the circulation of emails. Once multiplied, the copied worms scan the network for further loopholes and flaws in the network. A classic example of a worm is the ILOVEYOU virus. The best way you can protect yourself from worms is by updating your security patches. Operating

Password Sniffing Sober X Worm MyDoom Worm Morris Worms

systems and application vendors normally provide these patches. In addition, you should avoid opening email attachments from unknown senders. Email viruses use email messages to spread. An email virus can automatically forward itself to thousands of people, depending on whose email address it attacks. To avoid receiving virus-laden emails, always check that your antivirus software is up-to-date and also stay clear of opening attachments, even from friends that you weren't expecting or don't know anything about. Also, block unwanted email viruses by installing a spam filter and spam blocker.

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