CERT Advisory 038

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CERT Advisory

 · 4 years ago

  

 
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CA-92:02                        CERT Advisory 
   			      February 6, 1992 
                         Michelangelo PC Virus Warning 

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The Computer Emergency Response Team/Coordination Center (CERT/CC) has 
received information concerning a personal computer virus known as 
Michelangelo.  The virus affects IBM PCs and compatibles.  A description 
of the virus, along with suggested countermeasures, is presented below. 

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I.   Description 

     The Michelangelo virus is a computer virus that affects PCs 
     running MS-DOS (and PC-DOS, DR-DOS, etc.) versions 2.xx and 
     higher.  Note, however, that although the virus can only execute 
     on PCs running these versions of DOS, it can infect and damage PC 
     hard disks containing other PC operating systems including UNIX, 
     OS/2, and Novell.  Thus, booting an infected DOS floppy disk on 
     a PC that has, for example, UNIX on the hard disk would infect 
     the hard disk and would probably prevent the UNIX disk from 
     booting.  The virus infects floppy disk boot sectors and hard 
     disk master boot records (MBRs).  When the user boots from an 
     infected floppy disk, the virus installs itself in memory and 
     infects the partition table of the first hard disk (if found). 
     Once the virus is installed, it will infect any floppy disk that 
     the user accesses. 

     Some possible, though not conclusive, symptoms of the 
     Michelangelo virus include a reduction in free/total memory by 
     2048 bytes, and some floppy disks that become unusable or display 
     "odd" graphic characters during "DIR" commands.  Additionally, 
     integrity management products should report that the MBR has been 
     altered. 

     Note that the Michelangelo virus does not display any messages on 
     the PC screen at any time. 

II.  Impact 

     The Michelangelo virus triggers on any March 6.  On that date, 
     the virus overwrites critical system data, including boot and 
     file allocation table (FAT) records, on the boot disk (floppy or 
     hard), rendering the disk unusable.  Recovering user data from a 
     disk damaged by the Michelangelo virus will be very difficult. 

III. Solution  

     Many versions of anti-virus software released after approximately 
     October 1991 will detect and/or remove the Michelangelo virus. 
     This includes numerous commercial, shareware, and freeware 
     software packages.  Since this virus was first detected around 
     the middle of 1991 (after March 6, 1991), it is crucial to use 
     current versions of these products, particularly those products 
     that search systems for known viruses. 
         
     The CERT/CC has not formally reviewed, evaluated, or endorsed any 
     of the anti-virus products.  While some older anti-virus products 
     may detect this virus, the CERT/CC strongly suggests that sites 
     verify with their anti-virus product vendors that their product 
     will detect and eradicate the Michelangelo virus. 

     The CERT/CC advises that all sites test for the presence of this 
     virus before March 6, which is the trigger date.  If an infection 
     is discovered, it is essential that the user examine all floppy 
     disks that may have come in contact with an infected machine. 

     As always, the CERT/CC strongly urges all sites to maintain good 
     backup procedures. 

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The CERT/CC wishes to thank for their assistance: Mr. Christoph 
Fischer of the Micro-BIT Virus Center (Germany), Dr. Klaus Brunnstein 
of the Virus Test Center (Germany), Mr. A. Padgett Peterson, P.E., of 
the Technical Computing Center at Martin-Marietta Corp., and Mr. Steve 
R. White of IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center. 

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If you believe that your system has been compromised, contact CERT/CC or 
your representative in FIRST (Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams). 

Internet E-mail: cert@cert.org 
Telephone: 412-268-7090 (24-hour hotline) 
           CERT/CC personnel answer 7:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m. EST(GMT-5)/EDT(GMT-4), 
           on call for emergencies during other hours. 

Computer Emergency Response Team/Coordination Center (CERT/CC) 
Software Engineering Institute 
Carnegie Mellon University 
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 

Past advisories, information about FIRST representatives, and other 
information related to computer security are available for anonymous ftp 
from cert.org (192.88.209.5). 

 
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