From victor Fri Oct 23 14:13:22 1992 Return-Path: [victor] Received: by marie.stat.uga.edu (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA06489; Fri, 23 Oct 92 14:13:22 EDT Date: Fri, 23 Oct 92 14:13:22 EDT From: victor (Victor Grubbs) Message-Id: [9210231813.AA06489@marie.stat.uga.edu] To: bwc, david, dlq@groucho, glenn@groucho, hal@groucho Status: OR Path: athena.cs.uga.edu!emory!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!agate!spool.mu.edu!sgiblab!munnari.oz.au!bruce.cs.monash.edu.au!monu6!yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au!parry From: parry@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au (Tom J Parry) Newsgroups: comp.security.misc Subject: Re: What's a "mutating signature virus"? Message-ID: [1992Oct23.031128.15026@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au] Date: 23 Oct 92 03:11:28 GMT References: [411@dprmpt.UUCP] Sender: news@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au (Usenet system) Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia. Lines: 31 Originator: parry@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au Larry (larry@dprmpt.UUCP) wrote: ]The subject line say it...I've seen this mentioned several times, but ]never in a context that provided any information about what it is or ]how to prevent it (or is this an attempt at humor). I checked the FAQ ]for this newsgroup to no avail. Could someone shed some light? I too have heard of these things. From my meagre knowledge, they appear to be an unusual strain of the better known "Signature Virus". Each instance of this virus tends to propogate to several thousand machines, and is usually non vendor/hardware specific. They propogate using a well known hole in the USENET News system (which I don't think I should divulge). The lifetime of each instance of the virus varies according to the host of which it resides: some hosts will expunge the virus in as little as 1 day, while others may take a month or more to dispose of it. Most signature viruses tend to appear in a widespread but little understood code called "ASCII", and can be as little at 40 bytes long! Most signature viruses do not contain any replication code of their own (due to their size) unlike many other computer viruses. They rely on another similar form to ensure their replication (this other form is sometimes called a "post"). As for "Mutating", this generally refers to changes in the virus over time. The normal virus propogation mechanism is usually flawless, but sometimes the virus causes a new "Meme" to be placed into a human host (which is perhaps the least understood part of the Signature Virus lifecycle). Often, when it leaves a human host, the essence of the Virus remains, but the exact details change. -- Tom J Parry. Your reality is a figment of my imagination.
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