~BD~ wrote:
> FromTheRafters wrote:
>> ~BD~ wrote:
>>> §ñühwö£f wrote:
>>>> ~BD~<~BD~@nomail.afraid.org> wrote in
>>>> news:gfudnZulffqy2dTSnZ2dnUVZ8lOdnZ2d@bt.com:
>>>>
>>>>> §ñühwö£f wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Because he dosn't know how to boot his macintosh from a linux live cd
>>>>>> and do it safely?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Why would anyone want to do such a thing in the first place?
>>>>>
>>>>> Makes no sense to me!
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> Go stand in the corner, dimmy.
>>>
>>> :-)
>>>
>>> Whilst standing there, I happened across this:-
>>>
>>> Quote:
>>>
>>> Not necessarily, no. This dummy virus doesn't actually cause any
>>> damage to the system. However it does make changes to the registry
>>> from the command line.
>>>
>>> Now the one I wrote back in the days of Windows 95/98, did. It
>>> rendered the hard drive un bootable. In other words, once the victim
>>> restarted their computer it halted on a black screen with the words
>>> "Missing operating system" as it deleted key boot files; io.sys,
>>> msdos.sys and command.com.
>>>
>>> The only recourse from that (should one be so lucky) is to boot from a
>>> system diskette and "sys" the drive from the command line.
>>>
>>> Issuing the command: sys C: would fix that by putting those files back
>>> onto the hard drive.
>>>
>>> I also had two files from the Windows directory being targeted as
>>> well.. they were user.dat and user.da0. Which meant that any and all
>>> programs that were installed would have to be reinstalled again since
>>> the system's registry would be gone too.
>>>
>>> A "dummy virus" is so named due to the fact there are no actual virus
>>> code antivirus software could scan for. These were merely batch files
>>> (files that use the .bat extension) that contained commands the
>>> computer would recognize and execute.
>>>
>>> If I really wanted to be devious I could use something like this in a
>>> batch file....
>>>
>>> @ECHO OFF
>>> CD/
>>> attrib -r -a -s -h ntldr
>>> del ntldr
>>> ECHO.
>>> ECHO Please restart your system...
>>> ECHO.
>>>
>>> In the above example, regardless what directory that was ran from it
>>> would go right to the root of the drive. At that point it would remove
>>> the read only, archive, system and hidden attributes to ntldr then
>>> delete the file without confirmation.
>>>
>>> But that would render the system inoperable and display the "NTLDR
>>> missing" message. My method makes things more interesting due to the
>>> simple fact that I could use the command: net view \\ip.addy.goes.here
>>> to look for the shared drive. Unless I knew the IP address was static.
>>>
>>> Then once I found it issue the command net use * \\ip.addy.goes.here\C
>>> to map the drive. It basically allows me to see the hard drive in My
>>> Computer as though it were physically attached to my system by adding
>>> another drive letter. Then I could do whatever I wanted.. copy
>>> files\folders from their hard drive to mine or vice versa, move
>>> files\folders around, delete files, rename files, etc.. and they would
>>> never know.
>>>
>>> **
>>>
>>> I'm wondering if the author is correct in what he claims. Some guidance
>>> on this will be welcomed!
>>>
>> It is wrong to call it a virus, dummy or otherwise.
>
>
> Maybe you should tell Sycho that yourself?!! ;-)

He didn't ask, you did.

> How about commenting on the 'bat' file situation? I always value your
> opinion on such matters.
>
A batfile is like any other program and has the same scope as any other
program. I currently have 37 legitimate batfiles on my system - none of
which were written by me. Even have some related to Linux and OS/2 but
not on this drive.