Re: WARNING vIRuS!

["Mark M." <markm@voicenet.com>]

On Sat, 31 Aug 1996, Paul S. Penrod wrote:

> Binary launches are the way they do it, and the way a virus spreads, 
> unless you get caught up with autoexecuting Word and Excel macros.
> 
> I have yet to see *any* truly data propogating viruses.

Would you count the fingerd exploit used in the Internet Worm as a data
propogating virus?  If a poorly written mail program doesn't do bounds
checking, it could conceivably allow for a Good Times-like virus.  However,
highly unlikely, since mail programs are too diverse and it would be very
doubtful that a brain-dead mail program would become very widespread.  I would
be much more worried about other non-email programs that fail to do bounds
checking (like Netscape v1.1).

-- Mark

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