#NT Virus Alert
11 messages in this thread
I've been setting up a bunch of NT workstations in our office for use with
MicroGDS (CAD) and of course 3DS. As R4 is DOS only I've been retrofitting (the
machines came pre-loaded with NT 3.50) the workstations with DOS and had my
first for real VIRUS attack.
The heart-stopping symptom was a halted NT boot-up which offered the message
INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE. My dealer came up with the fix – Mcafee's Virus Scan
(GO MCAFEE). So, I just killed off the 'Stealth_C' virus on a few hard disks
and a pile of floppies. The strange part about this virus is that it caused no
ill effects when the workstations were booted to DOS but halted the machine
when booting into NT.
So, if you run into the INACESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE error message as you migrate
over to NT all is not lost.
– Bob Ritger
Good heads-up, Bob.
Yep. You can bet that if NT starts acting funny(or not at all), it's a boot
sector virus which is mainly transmitted when you're using DOS and accessing
some floppy diskette.
NT won't allow any program to write to the boot sector, so the only way for
this to happen is in DOS. Pratice safe computing!
Jh
Jeremy:
Don't know where this virus came from but it was all over the office like
lightning.
>> it's a boot sector virus which is mainly transmitted when you're using DOS
and accessing some floppy diskette….
Pratice safe computing! <<
So I wasn't supposed to take the floppy out of the clear plastic condom before
slipping it in? <GGG>
– Bob Ritger
You need to get out more Bob…
Jh
A *VERY* good practice is to disable floppy drive boot within the CMOS
setup of your computers. With the current OS's supporting multiple-boot setups,
it should be entirely unnecessary to boot from floppies anymore, anyway.
When those few occasions occur that require a floppy-drive boot, you can
always re-enable floppy drive boot.
This practically eliminates the possibility of getting boot-sector viruses.
– Michael J Sheldon "Falcon", msheldon@crl.com
– When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is
not hereditary. Thomas Paine, Common Sense [1776]
>> disable floppy drive boot within the CMOS setup <<
Good tip for dual boot machines, Michael.
-Ted Boardman
Mike:
>> A *VERY* good practice is to disable floppy drive boot within the CMOS
setup of your computers. <<
I can understand the value in doing this for some machines and for some people
but I have a desire to keep the machines booted into NT only unless I
personally wish to boot to them to DOS. In a large company you wouldn't
believe what trouble people will get into if you make it easy for them. I'd
rather keep them away from DOS. For the remaining months before MAX I desire
to have the NT workstations boot into NT unless I am putting them into 3DS R4
slave mode.
>> When those few occasions occur that require a floppy-drive boot, you can
always re-enable floppy drive boot. <<
Those occasions are nightly and running around the office with a floppy in
hand is enough of a time consumer. Screwing with the CMOS on every machine
would just extend the time required to get them booted.
– Bob Ritger
Also look out for another new one running around called ANTI – EXE
This is a boot sector virus that I have found on several diskettes that came
from Marin County way. We have not been able to trace the source yet but
looking hard.
It stops Win 95 or NT cold.
Will
Yep,
ANTIEXE is a sneaky one. There's also the FORM virus and it's flavors that
seemed to be spawned from the ANTIEXE. Isn't that cute? Viruses reproducing.
Jh
Jeez,, I hadn't heard about that. I seem to have gotten it out right away.
Where I got it they seem to be having ongoing problems. I will alert them.
Thanks for the heads up. Now if we could just figure where they got it and
trace it back. It is a real pain in the backside.
Will