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nist11.txt

nist11.txt
Posted Sep 23, 1999

nist11.txt

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nist11.txt

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New Macintosh Virus Discovered (INIT-M)
22 Apr 1993


Virus: INIT-M
Damage: Alters applications and other files; may severely damage
file system on infected Macs. See text below.
Spread: possibly limited, but has potential to spread quickly
Systems affected: All Apple Macintosh computers, under only System 7


The INIT-M virus was recently discovered at Dartmouth College, in a
file downloaded off the net. This is a DIFFERENT virus than the
INIT-17 virus announced April 12. It is a malicious virus that may
cause severe damage.

INIT-M rapidly spreads to applications, system extensions, documents
and preference files under System 7; it does not spread or activate on
System 6 systems. The virus spreads as the application files are run,
and is likely to spread extensively on an infected machine. The
infection is accomplished by altering existing program code. Besides
this incidental damage (that may, because of bugs in the virus code,
cause more severe damage), the virus also does extensive damage to
systems running on any Friday the 13th -- *not* just booted on that
day. Files and folders will be renamed to random strings, creation
and modification dates will be changed, and file creator and type
information will be scrambled. In some very rare circumstances, a
file or files may be deleted. This behavior is similar to the
previously announced (March 1992) INIT-1984 virus. Recovery from this
damage will be very difficult or impossible.

Note that the next three Friday the 13ths are in August 1993, May 1994,
and January 1995.

The virus, when present on an infected system, may interfere with the
proper display of some application window operations. It will also
create a file named "FSV Prefs" in the Preferences folder.

Recent versions of Gatekeeper and SAM Intercept (in advanced and
custom mode) are effective against this virus. Either program should
generate an alert if the virus is present and attempts to spread to
other files.


The authors of all other major Macintosh anti-virus tools are planning
updates to their tools to locate and/or eliminate this virus. Some of
these are listed below. We recommend that you obtain and run a CURRENT
version of AT LEAST ONE of these programs.


Some specific information on updated Mac anti-virus products follows:

Tool: Central Point Anti-Virus
Status: Commercial software
Revision to be released: 2.01e
Where to find: Compuserve, America Online, sumex-aim.stanford.edu,
Central Point BBS, (503) 690-6650
When available: immediately
Comments: The MacSig file will be dated 4/22/93


Tool: Disinfectant
Status: Free software (courtesy of Northwestern University and
John Norstad)
Revision to be released: 3.2
When available: immediately
Where to find: usual archive sites and bulletin boards --
ftp.acns.nwu.edu, sumex-aim.stanford.edu,
rascal.ics.utexas.edu, AppleLink, America Online,
CompuServe, Genie, Calvacom, MacNet, Delphi,
comp.binaries.mac


Tool: Gatekeeper
Status: Free software (courtesy of Chris Johnson)
Revision to be released: No new revision needed; 1.2.7 works
When available: immediately
Where to find: usual archive sites and bulletin boards --
microlib.cc.utexas.edu, sumex-aim.stanford.edu,
rascal.ics.utexas.edu, comp.binaries.mac


Tool: Rival
Status: Commercial software
Revision to be released: INIT-M Vaccine
When available: Immediately.
Where to find it: AppleLink, America Online, Internet, Compuserve.


Tool: SAM (Virus Clinic and Intercept)
Status: Commercial software
Revision to be released: 3.5.6
When available: immediately
Where to find: CompuServe, America Online, Applelink, Symantec's
Customer Service @ 800-441-7234
Comments: Updates to various versions of SAM to detect and remove
INIT-M are available from the above sources.


Tool: Virex
Status: Commercial software
Revision to be released: 3.93
Where to find: Datawatch Corporation, (919) 490-1277
When available: Detection Strings will be available 4/27 on AOL
and on the "DataGate" BBS @ (919) 419-1602. Updated version
with detection, repair and prevention capabilities will be
available next week.
Comments: Virex 3.93 will detect the virus in any file, and
repair any file that has not been permanently damaged. All Virex
subscribers will automatically be sent an update on diskette. All
other registered users will receive a notice by mail.


Tool: VirusDetective
Status: Shareware
Revision to be released: 5.0.9
When available: immediately
Where to find: various Mac archives
Comments: VirusDetective is shareware. Search strings for the new
virus will be sent only to registered users.


If you discover what you believe to be a virus on your Macintosh
system, please report it to the vendor/author of your anti-virus
software package for analysis. Such reports make early, informed
warnings like this one possible for the rest of the Mac community. If
you are otherwise unsure of who to contact, you may send e-mail to
spaf@cs.purdue.edu as an initial point of contact.

Also, be aware that writing and releasing computer viruses is more
than a rude and damaging act of vandalism -- it is also a violation of
many state and Federal laws in the US, and illegal in several other
countries. If you have information concerning the author of this or
any other computer virus, please contact any of the anti-virus
providers listed above. Several Mac virus authors have been
apprehended thanks to the efforts of the Mac user community, and some
have received criminal convictions for their actions. This is yet one
more way to help protect your computers.


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