Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2002 23:42:03 -0800 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> Cc: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: computer viruses and proprietary software Message-ID: <3C4BC64B.78DD86F7@mindspring.com> References: <20020120231531.GB976@hades.hell.gr>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Giorgos Keramidas wrote: > Francois-Rene Rideau, has posted a nice article of his to the > cybernethics list, that I thought many of you might find interesting. > > The article which discusses the relationship (if any) of the existence > of viruses and commercial software, can be found at: > > http://fare.tunes.org/articles/virus_design.html > > Since I'm now reading it (and the previous one, linked from that > page), I'd be delighted to hear your comments. Writing a virus for UNIX is a relatively trivial exercise, and has been, ever since the file size of an executable no longer has to match the header segment information (this is how compiled LISP code in Common LISP and Franz LISP worked: by storing an image of the system with the code loaded and compiled as an executable with a data addition). Even without this change, it's fairly trivial to rewrite the header information to correct the oversight, so it is still overall possible, even if it can be made more complicated. I wrote my first UNIX virus in 1984 as a proof of concept for an advanced programming class. The intent of the prgram was to compress programs, and add itself as a prefix, capable of infecting other programs, as well as capable of uncompressing a temporary copy of the real program into a /tmp file, and exec'ing it with the correct av[0] ... etc.. Effectively, this caused an "infected" system to "grow more disk space", as time went on. Because it was recognized that the payload could be a bit more inmical, this virus was never released on the academic systems where it was first written and tested. If the explosive increase in virus strains is owed to any commercial software, that software has got to be the virus scanning software itself (McAfee, Norton, etc.). It's very hard to justify playing a chess game against someone, if your opponent refuses to participate in the game. I think this article is just another of those "everything would be so rosy, if only all software was Open Source" type articles that pop up every so often to try and sell the idea when someone balks at buying the GNU Manifesto, systems interoperability, or the other rationale used to sell Open Source to non-programming communities. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3C4BC64B.78DD86F7>