RE: Denial of Service, Good for AS/400?

["Bob Crothers" <bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jim,

Does a virus require "changed code"?  Perhaps by a strict definition of the
word.  But in a more general sense of the word, Virus's, Trojan Horses, etc
are all different flavors of the same phenomena.  And from that point of
view, the AS/400 is venerable.

And also, you are assuming ALL AS/400's are at Security level 40.  My guess
is that there are more at 30 and below than 40 and above.

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com [mailto:owner-midrange-l@midrange.com]On
Behalf Of joberhol@compures.com
Sent: Friday, February 11, 2000 11:41 AM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: RE: Denial of Service, Good for AS/400?

*snip
>>What cannot possibly be done is to write an
OS/400 object that is a virus<<
This is totally wrong.  Nobody (that I know of) has successfully
distributed
one, but it would be possible to do.

*endsnip

Bob,

How can an OS/400  virus spread when the processor instructions to
create/change an object are privileged?    That means only IBM processes
can create a virus. Once the object is created, it cannot be altered except
with privileged instructions that a non-IBM process cannot use.   Almost
any machine at level 40 security is completely protected.

Now a guy could get a Trojan horse set up, but even that is tough for a
properly set up machine.

The point here is, if we can figure out how to spread an OS/400 object
virus, we can stop it before it starts.

Jim


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