| Re: VIRUS ALERT (was: Ghost object) [message #21205] |
Thu, 17 August 2000 00:00 |
Dave Jones
Messages: 1
Registered: August 2000
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Junior Member |
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Thank goodness for SACEPA. Thanks to their timely warning, we have
reformatted all our hard drives, and are convinced that we have eliminated
the VIRUS. If we could boot up our machines, we would be able to confirm
this - but until someone tells us what to do next, we'll just have to take
it on trust.
Another potential disaster averted thanks to our system administrator's
rapid response and quick thinking.
Dave
ps also ;-)
"Martin Schultz" <martin.schultz@dkrz.de> wrote in message
news:399B9A89.B4C2D81E@dkrz.de...
> !!!!!! ATTENTION -- VIRUS ALERT !!!!!!!
>
> The Security Advisory Committee of the Expert Programmers
> Association (SACEPA) announces:
>
> Pavel R. has recently discovered the first IDL virus, codename
> "ghostfont". This is an extremely dangerous beast, and it hits
> the IDL community completely unprepared. In the past we have
> always thought that viruses would be something that belongs to
> Microsoft Windows, and that no one would care about an IDL virus,
> because the user community is sparse enough to prevent serious
> epidemics. Yet, here it is, and the bad news is: no one (not even
> the EPA wizards) know how to remove it. We only know that the
> drastic measure typical for infected Windows systems (clean your
> disk and reinstall) will not be likely to succeed. What makes
> this virus especially dangerous is IDL's platform independence.
> And what worries us at SACEPA most is that this virus apparently
> threatens the whole idea of open source software. Because IDL
> programs are plain text files, it was never thought feasible for
> a virus to attack, yet, here it comes. Open software can only be
> rehabilitated if it is discovered that this is a bug in the IDL
> main executable (which is not open source) or a simple
> programmer's oversight.
>
> Summary:
> Virus name: ghostfont
>
> Danger classification: 1* - probably mildly harmful, but risks
> not fully analyzed yet
>
> Virus action: produces IDLgrfont objects even if no one asked for
> them and doesn't remove them upon cleanup. So far, no more
> serious damage has been detected, but we cannot exclude that this
> virus will expunge your harddisk.
>
> Counter measures: Don't use Pavel's new program
>
>
> For SACEPA signed by
> Martin
>
> PS: :-)
>
>
> Pavel Romashkin wrote:
>>
>> David Fanning wrote:
>>>
>>> Pavel Romashkin (promashkin@cmdl.noaa.gov) writes:
>>>
>>>> And... here again comes IDLGRFONT, Array[1].
>>>
>>> Uh, you're not using one of my programs, are you. :-(
>>
>> Nope. And it is not happening today, either. The code is untouched. I am
>> convinced it is a one-time glitch (that sometimes repeats at regular
>> intervals :-)
>> Solution: I'll just quit IDL to let it rest over the lunch break :-)
>> Cheers,
>> Pavel
>
> --
> [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ [[[[[[[
> [[ Dr. Martin Schultz Max-Planck-Institut fuer Meteorologie
> [[
> [[ Bundesstr. 55, 20146 Hamburg
> [[
> [[ phone: +49 40 41173-308
> [[
> [[ fax: +49 40 41173-298
> [[
> [[ martin.schultz@dkrz.de
> [[
> [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ [[[[[[[
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