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Computer Virus Myths
by Rob Rosenberger
with Ross Greenberg
A number of myths have popped up recently about the threat
of computer "viruses". There are myths about how widespread they
are, how dangerous they are, and even myths about what a computer
virus really is. We'd like the facts to be known.
The first thing you have to understand is that a virus is a
programming technique that falls in the realm of "Trojan horses."
All viruses are Trojan horses, but very few Trojan horses can be
called a virus.
That having been said, it's time to go over the terminology
we use when we lecture:
BBS Bulletin Board System. If you have a modem, you
can call a BBS and leave messages, transfer com-
puter files back & forth, and learn a lot about
computers. (What you're reading right now most
likely came to you from a BBS, for example.)
Bug an accidental flaw in the logic of a computer
program that makes it do things it shouldn't
really be doing. Programmers don't mean to put
bugs in their program, but they always creep in.
The first bug was discovered by pioneer Grace
Hopper when she found a dead moth shorting out a
circuit in the early days of computers. Pro-
grammers tend to spend more time debugging their
programs than they do writing them in the first
place.
Hacker someone who really loves computers and who wants
to push them to the limit. Hackers don't release
Trojan horses onto the world, it's the wormers who
do that. (See the definition for a "wormer".)
Hackers have a healthy sense of curiosity: they
try doorknobs just to see if they're locked, and
they tinker with a piece of equipment until it's
"just right."
Shareware a distribution method for quality software avail-
able on a "try before you buy" basis. You pay for
the program only if you find it useful. Shareware
programs can be downloaded from BBSs and you are
encouraged to give an evaluation copy to friends.
There are few advertising & distribution costs, so
many shareware applications can rival the power of
off-the-shelf counterparts, at just a fraction of
the price.
Copyright (c) 1988 Rob Rosenberger & Ross Greenberg Page 1
Trojan horse a generic term describing a set of computer
instructions purposely hidden inside a program.
Trojan horses tell a program to do things you
don't expect it to do. The term comes from a
historic battle in which the ancient city of Troy
was offered the "gift" of a large wooden horse
that secretly held soldiers in its belly. The
Trojans rolled it into their fortified city....
Virus a term for a very specialized Trojan horse that
can spread to other computers by secretly
"infecting" programs with a copy of itself. A
virus is the only type of Trojan horse which is
contagious, like the common cold. If it doesn't
meet this definition, then it isn't a virus.
Worm a term similar to a Trojan horse, but there is no
"gift" involved. If the Trojans had left that
wooden horse outside the city, they wouldn't have
been attacked -- but worms can bypass your
defenses. An example is an unauthorized program
designed to spread itself by exploiting a bug in a
network software package. (Such programs could
possibly also contain a virus that activates when
it reaches the computer.) Worms are usually
released by someone who has normal access to the
computer or network.
Wormers the name given to the people who unleash
destructive Trojan horses. Let's face it, these
people aren't angels. What they do hurts us.
They deserve our disrespect.
Viruses, like all Trojan horses, are purposely designed to
make a program do things you don't expect it to do. Some viruses
are just an annoyance, perhaps only displaying a "Peace on earth"
message. The viruses we're worried about are the ones designed
to destroy your files and waste the valuable time you'll spend to
repair the damage.
Now you know the difference between a virus and a Trojan
horse and a bug. Let's get into some of the myths:
All purposely destructive code comes as a virus.
Wrong. Remember, "Trojan horse" is the general term for
purposely destructive code. Very few Trojan horses are actually
viruses.
All Trojan horses are bad.
Believe it or not, there are a few useful Trojan horse tech-
niques in the world. A "side door" is any command not documented
in the user manual, and it's a Trojan horse by definition. Some
programmers install side doors to help them locate bugs in their
Computer Virus Myths Page 2
programs. Sometimes a command may have such an obscure function
that it makes sense not to document it.
Viruses and Trojan horses are a recent phenomenon.
Trojan horses have been around since the first days of the
computer. Hackers toyed with viruses in the early 1960s as a
form of amusement. Many different Trojan horse techniques were
developed over the years to embezzle money, destroy data, etc.
The general public wasn't aware of this problem until the IBM PC
revolution brought it into the spotlight. Just five years ago,
banks were still covering up computerized embezzlements because
they believed they'd lose too many customers.
Computer viruses are reaching epidemic proportions.
Wrong again. Viruses may be spread all over the planet but
they aren't taking over the world. There are only about fifty or
so known virus "strains" at this time and a few of them have been
completely eliminated. Your chances of being infected are slim
if you take proper precautions. (Yes, it's still safe to turn on
your computer!)
Viruses could destroy all the files on my disks.
Yes, and a spilled cup of coffee will do the same thing. If
you have adequate backup copies of your data, you will be able to
recover from a virus/coffee attack. Backups mean the difference
between a nuisance and a disaster.
Viruses have been documented on over 300,000 computers.
This statistic comes from John McAfee, a self-styled virus
fighter who seems to come up with all the quotes the media love
to hear. We assume it includes every floppy disk ever infected
by a virus, as well as all of the computers participating in the
Christmas worm attack. (That worm was designed for a particular
IBM network software package; it never infected the computers.
Therefore, it wasn't a virus. The Christmas worm attack can't be
included in virus infection statistics.) Most of the media don't
understand computer crimes, so they tend to call almost anything
a virus.
Viruses can be hidden inside a data file.
Data files can't wreak havoc on your computer -- only an
executable program can do that. If a virus were to infect a data
file, it would be a wasted effort.
Most BBSs are infected with viruses.
Here's another scary myth drummed up in the big virus panic.
Very few BBSs are really infected. (If they are infected, they
won't be around for long!) It's possible a dangerous file could
be available on a BBS, but that doesn't mean the BBS itself is
infected.
Computer Virus Myths Page 3
BBSs and shareware programs spread viruses.
"The truth," says PC Magazine publisher Bill Machrone, "is
that all major viruses to date were transmitted by commercial
packages and private mail systems, often in universities." The
Peace virus, for example, made its way into a commercial software
product sold to thousands of customers. Machrone goes on to say
that "bulletin boards and shareware authors work extraordinarily
hard at policing themselves to keep viruses out." Many reputable
sysops check all new files for Trojan horses; nationwide sysop
networks help spread the word about dangerous files. You should
be careful about software that comes from friends & BBSs, that's
definitely true -- but you must also be careful with the software
you buy at computer stores. The Peace virus proves it.
My computer could be infected if I call an infected BBS.
BBSs can't write information on your disks -- that's handled
by the communications software you use. You can only transfer a
dangerous file if you let your software do it. (In rare cases, a
computer hooked into a network could be sent a dangerous file or
directly infected, but it takes specialized software to connect a
computer into a network. BBSs are NOT networks.)
My files are damaged, so it must have been a virus attack.
It could also have been caused by a power flux, or static
electricity, or a fingerprint on a floppy disk, or a bug in your
software, or perhaps a simple error on your part. Power failures
and spilled cups of coffee have destroyed more data than all the
viruses combined.
Donald Burleson was convicted of releasing a virus.
A recent Texas computer crime trial was hailed all over the
country as a "virus" trial. Donald Burleson was in a position to
release a complex, destructive worm on his employer's mainframe
computer. This particular worm wasn't able to spread itself to
other computers, so it wasn't a virus. The prosecuting attorney,
Davis McCown, claims he "never brought up the word virus" during
the trial. So why did the media call it a virus?
1. David Kinney, an expert witness testifying for the defense
(oddly enough), claimed he believed Burleson unleashed a
virus. This is despite the fact that the programs in
question had no capability to infect other systems. The
prosecuting attorney didn't argue the point and we don't
blame him -- Kinney's bizarre claim on the witness stand
probably helped sway the jury to convict Burleson, and it
was the defense's fault for letting him testify.
2. McCown doesn't offer reporters a definition for the word
virus. He gives the facts behind the case and lets the
reporters deal with the definitions. The Associated Press
and USA Today, among others, used such vague terms that
any program could be called a virus. If we applied their
definitions in the medical world, we could safely claim
penicillin is a biological virus (which is absurd).
Computer Virus Myths Page 4
3. McCown claims many of the quotes attributed to him "are
misleading or fabricated" and identified one in particular
which "is total fiction." Reporters occasionally print a
quote out of context, and McCown apparently fell victim to
it. (It's possible a few bizarre quotes from David Kinney
or John McAfee were accidentally attributed to McCown.)
Robert Morris Jr. released a benign virus on a defense network.
It may have been benign, but it wasn't a virus in the strict
technical sense. Morris, the son of a chief scientist for the
National Security Agency, allegedly became bored and decided to
take advantage of a tiny bug in the Defense Department's network
software. (We say "alleged" because Morris hadn't been charged
with a crime when we went to press.) That tiny bug let him send
a worm through the network and have it execute when it reached
certain computers. Among other things, Morris's "Internet" worm
was able to tell some computers to send copies of itself to other
computers in the network. The network became clogged in a matter
of hours. The media called the Internet worm a "virus" (like it
called the Christmas worm a virus) because it was able to spread
itself to other computers. But it didn't infect those computers,
so it can't be called a virus. (We can't really fault the press
for calling it one, though. It escapes the definition of a virus
because of a technicality.) A few notes:
1. This worm worked only on Sun-3 & Vax computers with a UNIX
operating system that was linked to the Internet network;
2. The 6,200 affected computers should not be counted in any
virus infection statistics (they weren't infected);
3. Yes, Morris could easily have added some infection code to
make it a worm/virus if he'd had the urge; and,
4. The network bug Morris exploited has since been fixed.
Viruses can spread to all sorts of computers.
All Trojan horses are limited to a family of computers, and
this is especially true for viruses. A virus designed to spread
on IBM PCs cannot infect an IBM 4300-series mainframe, nor can it
infect a Commodore C64, nor can it infect an Apple MacIntosh.
My backup disks will be destroyed if I back up a virus.
No, they won't. Let's suppose a virus does get backed up
with your other files. Backups are just a form of data, and data
can't harm your system. You can recover the important files from
your backups without triggering the virus.
Anti-virus software will protect me from viruses.
Anti-virus packages offer some good front-line protection,
but they can be tricky to use at times. You could make a crucial
mistake in deciding whether to let a "flagged" event take place.
Also, Trojan horses can be designed to take advantage of holes in
your defense.
Computer Virus Myths Page 5
Copy-protected software is safe from an attack.
This is totally wrong. Copy-protected software is the most
vulnerable software in a Trojan horse attack. You may have big
problems trying to use or re-install such software, especially if
the master disk was attacked. It should also be noted that copy-
protection schemes rely on extremely tricky techniques which have
occasionally "blown up" on users. Some people mistakenly believe
they were attacked by a clever virus.
Viruses are written by hackers.
Yes, hackers have written viruses -- just to see how they
operate. But they DON'T unleash them to an unsuspecting public.
Wormers are the ones who do that. (You can think of a wormer as
a hacker who was seduced by the Dark Side of The Force.) Hackers
got a bum rap when the press corrupted the name.
We hope this dispels the myths surrounding the virus scare.
Viruses DO exist, many of them will cause damage, and all of them
can spread to other computers. But you can defend yourself from
an attack if you keep a cool head and a set of backups.
The following guidelines can shield you from Trojan horses
and viruses. They will lower your chances of being attacked and
raise your chances of recovering from one.
1. Download files only from reputable BBSs where sysops check
every program for Trojan horses. If you're still afraid,
consider getting your programs from a BBS or "disk vendor"
company which gets its programs directly from the author;
2. Let a newly uploaded file "mature" on a BBS for one or two
weeks before you download it (others will put it through
its paces).
3. Set up a procedure to regularly back up your files, and
follow it religiously. Consider purchasing a user-
friendly backup program that takes the drudgery out of
backing up your files.
4. Rotate between two sets of backups for better security
(use set #1, then set #2, then set #1...).
5. Consider using a program which will create a unique
"signature" of all the programs on your computer. Once in
a while, you can run this program to determine if any of
your applications have been modified -- either by a virus
or by a stray gamma ray.
6. If your computer starts acting weird, DON'T PANIC. It may
be a virus, but then again it may not. Immediately reboot
from a legitimate copy of your master DOS disk. Put a
write-protect tab on that disk just to be safe. Do NOT
run any programs on your regular disks (you might activate
Computer Virus Myths Page 6
a Trojan horse). If you don't have adequate backups, try
to bring them up to date. Yes, you might be backing up a
virus as well, but it can't hurt you as long as you don't
run any of your normal programs. Set your backups off to
the side. Only then can you safely hunt for the problem.
7. If you can't figure out what's wrong with your computer,
and you aren't sure of yourself, just turn it off and call
for help. Consider calling a local computer group before
you hire an expert to fix your problem. If you need a
professional, consider hiring a regular computer consul-
tant before you call on a "virus expert."
8. If you can't figure out what's wrong with your computer,
and you are sure of yourself, execute a low-level format
on all of your regular disks (you can learn how to do it
from almost any BBS), then do a high-level format on each
one of them. Next, carefully re-install your software
from legitimate copies of the master disks, not from the
backups. Then, carefully restore only the data files (not
the executable program files!) from your backup disks.
If you DO find a Trojan horse or a virus, we'd appreciate it
if you'd mail a copy to us. (But please, don't handle one unless
you know what you're doing.) Include as much information as you
can, and put a label on the disk that says it contains a Trojan
horse or virus. Send it to Ross Greenberg, 594 Third Avenue, New
York, NY 10016. Thank you.
-------------------------------------------------------
Ross Greenberg is the author of a popular Trojan/virus
detection program. Rob Rosenberger is the author of a
modem analysis program. These men have never met in
person; they worked on this story completely by modem.
-------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 1988 Rob Rosenberger & Ross Greenberg
You may give copies of this to anyone if you pass it along in its
entirety. Publications must obtain written permission to reprint
this article. Write to Rob Rosenberger, P.O. Box #643, O'Fallon,
IL 62269.
Computer Virus Myths Page 7