Re: Apple IIGS and viruses...

[Andy McFadden <fadden@fadden.com>]

Jeff Blakeney <CUTjblakeney@syndicomm.com> wrote:
>>I was reading in a magazine published during 1990 that three viral-type
>>programs existed on IIGS. One of them, is hard to detect and after
>>random disk changes begins wiping disks, re-writing the first four
>>blocks of track zero, copying itself to each disk. Is this common? What
>>is the most effective and update anti-virus program that detects this
>>one and others since?

> The only virii for the Apple II series I know are probably the ones
> mentioned in that article.

There's also "Cancer DOS", a modified DOS 3.3 that would erase floppies
after a while.  Every time you executed a DOS command that accessed a
disk it would check to see if the disk were infected.  If not, it would
replace the DOS tracks and set a flag in the VTOC.

Easy to notice with the old Disk ][ drives, hard to spot with the later,
quieter ones.

The part I liked best is that it trapped "PR#6", so if you put a clean
floppy in and tried to boot it the disk would get infected.

There was another, passive one, which got some traffic on this group a
few years back.  If you had it the graphics in cracked copies of Congo
would get screwed up (and I suspect it trashed Buzzard Bait as well).

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