On Wed, 14 Nov 2001 09:09:40 -0600 Robert Wittig <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Subject: Re: Viruses attacking DOS systems? >> I was wondering whether anyone has ever received an email >> attachment that contained a virus/worm that has damaged a DOS >> based system? All these viruses/worms seem to be targeting Win >> platforms? > Sure. In fact, most modern virii do their damage in DOS, and only > use Windows programs (like Outlook) as an entry point, and a > distribution point (like Outlook) for spreading themselves to > other computers. If you execute a virus with a payload of > formatting your HD on a DOS computer, it will format your HD, but > another virus that wants to mess with your Windows registry > (which will also execute) won't be able to do anything, because > DOS does not have a registry. I know several people from various DOS users' mailing lists who have said that they have deliberately attempted to run some Windows virrii received as email attachments on their DOS machines. They all report that they get as a result only an error message saying "This program cannot run in DOS mode". No damage and no problem. If you examine a Windows email virus in a hex editor you will often find the error message encoded into the file. Regards, Sam Heywood -- This mail was written by user of The Arachne Browser - http://arachne.cz/ To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies. More info can be found at; http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
