New Mac Virus Reported
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
A Macintosh virus undetectable by most currently used protection
programs has been discovered in Belgium, Northwestern University
in Illinois, and at the University of Texas, according to reports
reaching Microbytes Daily. The virus can cause system crashes,
says John Norstad of Northwestern University.
 
Norstad, lead programmer of the free Disinfectant virus detection
and eradication utility, says the virus propagates in a manner
that does not follow previous Mac viral vectors, making currently
used antiviral programs ineffective against its spread.
Dsinfectant has been revised (as version 1.4) to cope with this
virus, named WDEF for the system resource it infects.
 
In the documentation accompanying 1.4, Norstad states, "Although
the virus does not intentionally try to do any damage, WDEF
contains bugs which can cause very serious problems. In
particular, one bug in the virus causes the Mac IIci to crash. We
have also noticed unusually frequent crashes on infected Mac
IIcxs, and severe performance problems with infected AppleShare
servers. Several people have also reported frequent crashes when
trying to save files, and we have two reports that the virus can
damage disks."
 
Disinfectant 1.4 is avilable on BIX in the listings section of
the Macintosh Exchange.
 
                              --- Larry Loeb
 
Editors note: Disinfectant 1.4 is also available in the BBX.NEWS
and 'security' conference listings areas. Download disinfect.1.4.
 
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