Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!ucbvax!CORY.BERKELEY.EDU!dillon
From: dillon@CORY.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: The ultimate fix!!!
Message-ID: <8809200631.AA24420@cory.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 20 Sep 88 06:31:04 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 36

:
:The "checksum" could be made a rather intricate calculation,  and thus hard to
:match.  However,  since Commodore may want to change the boot block,  and there
:are various custom boot blocks,  this really isn't such a great idea.

	(1) It won't work, period.  Throughout time industry has 
	    underestimated the 'bad' hacker (distinction: good and bad).
	    It only takes one, and although such people usually do not
	    have college degrees and couldn't care less about high level
	    theory, they *can* trace code and break just about anything
	    it existance, ESPECIALLY if it is in the OS.

	(2) It won't work, hackers are usually smarter than the OS designers
	    when it comes to code breaking, especially considering the 
	    checksum code is readily disassemblable.  In fact, many companies
	    these days are highering hackers to fight hackers... but it 
	    doesn't help.  It's easier to break than build.

	(3) Many games use custom boot blocks

	(4) Only A1000's have kickstart on disk and that is not likely
	    to get screwed up (i.e. write protect the disk).

	(5) Many handlers exist which are not virus's..  For example, the
	    new ram disk in 1.3 not only survives reboot, but allows you
	    to boot out of ram.

    The solution is simple.  Don't write Virus's.  Don't even write anti-virus
virus's.  Write Virus detectors.  Here on the USENET it isn't as big a problem
than on other nets or BBSs because it is possible to trace the originator.
Even if it comes from a guest account one can simply remove the entire computer
from the graph until their sysop does something about it.  This could be made
into an argument in favor of moderators testing code before posting it,
but frankly, if it doubles the turn-around time I will take my chances.

						-Matt