Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!bellcore!faline!ulysses!mhuxt!ihnp4!alberta!edson!tic!ruiu From: ruiu@tic.UUCP (Dragos Ruiu) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Trojan Horse a Myth? Message-ID: <166@tic.UUCP> Date: Sun, 6-Dec-87 15:13:49 EST Article-I.D.: tic.166 Posted: Sun Dec 6 15:13:49 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 12-Dec-87 04:09:08 EST References: <459@gtx.com> Organization: U of A, E.E., Edmonton,Canada Lines: 35 Summary: Trojans are all too common in BBS - PC land. In article <459@gtx.com>, al@gtx.com (0732) writes: > It seems to me that the Professor is being quite naive. We all know > how easy it would be to create a Trojan Horse Program, and even, with a > little more difficulty, make it infect the user's system in subtle > ways. As for the question, "has anyone actually been hurt by one of > these?", I only know third-hand accounts. Can anyone relate a > first-hand account of damage done to his/her system by a malicious > Trojan Horse? > > | Alan Filipski, GTX Corp, 2501 W. Dunlap, Phoenix, Arizona 85021, USA | > | {ihnp4,cbosgd,decvax,hplabs,seismo}!sun!sunburn!gtx!al (602)870-1696 | Trojans shop up with alarming regularity about twice a year on public domain software distributed by BBS's. The only time I have ever been caught is when a friend gave me a reputedly 'new' version of ARC he had just downloaded. This was two and a half years ago. My friend lost his entire hard disk, luckily I tested it on floppy. (My friend just about had his backup disks framed :-) The ocurrence of disk-erasing trojans, viruses etc. has even spawned a de-fuser program called CHK4BOMB that lets you examine new programs and warns of questionable practices within them. It is standard fare on all IBM-PC BBS's but unfortunately I think it is nowhere near infallible and the user needs a lot of knowledge of system calls on a PC. I still use my copy on something too good to be true (When I use MS-Clunk :-). Now if we could only figure out what drives people to do things like this. I can see what would cause trojans on a timesharing system in a CS environment, but what would drive someone to spring nasty effects on some complete stranger? -- Dragos Ruiu Disclaimer: My opinons are my employer's, I'm unemployed! UUCP:{ubc-vision,mnetor,vax135,ihnp4}!alberta!edson!tic!dragos!work (403) 432-0090 #1705, 8515 112th Street, Edmonton, Alta. Canada T6G 1K7 Never play leapfrog with Unicorns...