Re: VIRUS Alert for the LIST

["L. S. Russell" <leslier@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> Would a virus be effective if it just did a one line CL that did DLTCMD
> ?

The main thing a virus, and indeed many trojans do is replicate and spread. The
object oriented file structure of the as/400 somewhat limits most common methods
of virus replication. So, IMHO more is required than just malicious code to
qualify as a virus.

> The holes that would be needed would be in the security implementation.
> Or to put it another way the virus would just have to hang around until
> someone with ALLOBJ happened to run the program.

This is not true I remember reading an article in Midrange Computing by Wayne
Evans where he detailed a method by which one could programmatically adopt
*ALLOBJ.

> Your point's are valid.  But I am afraid that those situations are only
> delaying the inevitable not preventing it.
>
> I hesitate to go into anymore detail but after thinking about it I know
> it would be easy to do.
> I don't want to publish a handbook on how to write a virus for the 400
> :(

I think I agree with the previous message, virus writing on the 400 would 
require
much more than, even advanced RPG ILE. Because, a virus requires more than just
malicious code to be a virus.

What is a virus?
A parasitic program written intentionally to enter a computer without the users
permission or knowledge. The word parasitic is used because a virus attaches to
files or boot sectors and replicates itself thus continuing to spread. Though
some virus's do little but replicate others can cause serious damage or effect
program and system performance. A virus should never be assumed harmless and 
left
on a system.

I would add here that a virus is self replicating, this is the very definition 
of
a virus, computer or otherwise, and this would be difficult to achieve in
QSYS.LIB.

http://phxdg1.apo.lc.usbr.gov/user/magic/whatis.html
http://www.state.mt.us/isd/techinfo/15minute/Basics/virus/sld05.html
http://www.spcomm.uiuc.edu/projects/e-quad/spcom199/NewNicFiles/Virus/sld002.htm


--
L. S. Russell Programmer/Analyst
Datrek Professional Bags, Inc.
2413 Industrial Drive
Springfield, TN. 37172
mailto:leslier@datrek.com
http://www.datrek.com
--


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