Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!mailrus!eecae!cps3xx!rang
From: rang@cpsin3.cps.msu.edu (Anton Rang)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: new virus???
Message-ID: <1231@cps3xx.UUCP>
Date: 5 Dec 88 04:52:47 GMT
References: 
Sender: usenet@cps3xx.UUCP
Reply-To: rang@cpswh.cps.msu.edu (Anton Rang)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Michigan State University, Computer Science Dept.
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In-reply-to: sarrel@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu's message of 5 Dec 88 03:53:10 GMT

I decided to respond to the net to quell any fears about this....

Marc Sarrel writes:
>I think I may have found a new virus.  Interferon 3.1 did not detect
>it, but some strange (if benign) things have been going on.  I first
>suspected a problem when three of my floppy disks (which I hadn't look
>at in a month or two) suddenly had new disk icons.  The new icons
>resembled a "Hello, my name is ____" sticker.  I tried to reformat
>them, but it didn't help.

  The "Facade" INIT allows you to change the icon for a disk.  This
must be installed on your boot disk, because....

>  If I try to do another erase disk, on one that
>already has the new icon, when it asks if I want to erease the disk
>named XXX, it adds the words "facade by Greg Marriot" to the name of
>the disk in the dialog box (but not on the desktop).

  Also, Marc says:

>But it gets better.  If I do a Get Info on the dektop file (from
>within resedit) it says that the Creator of the file is ERIK.

  This is correct.  I don't know why Apple chose "ERIK" as the creator
of the Desktop file; I suspect whoever originally did the Finder was
named Erik....

>Does anyone have an explanation for these occurences?  Is it really a
>virus, or can the symptoms be explained in other ways?

  Look in your system folder and see if the "Facade" INIT is there.
It's also possible, I suppose, that someone might have installed it
directly into your system file--you might want to check there, too.

	Anton Rang
	rang@cpswh.cps.msu.edu

+---------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| Anton Rang (grad student) | "VMS Forever!"         | "Do worry...be SAD!" |
| Michigan State University | rang@cpswh.cps.msu.edu |                      |
+---------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+