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Coblist: Virus warning - READ ME FIRST

Shannon C. Dealy dealy at deatech.com
Tue May 4 01:10:23 CDT 1999


A message was received on the coblist a short time ago that contains a
computer virus (of sorts - technically it is called a "worm").  It has the
following header information:

     Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 06:22:17 +0200
     From: robden at mweb.co.za
     Message-ID: <199905040422.GAA05699 at quantum.mweb.co.za>
     Subject: Cob Woodshavings

There are actually two messages with the same subject name from this
individual, the one with the above message ID contains an attachment
called "Happy99.exe".  If you execute this attachment (by opening it) 
from your mail program on a Microsoft Windows (or possibly DOS) system,
you will infect your computer with it. Your system CANNOT be infected
unless you open the attachment.

Please DO NOT send nasty mail to "robden at mweb.co.za", it is not this
person's fault, they are just an unwitting victim of the worm.

If you do execute the program, it will show you a small fireworks display
on your computer screen (so I hear), and then install itself on your
computer.  Once installed on your computer, it will monitor your outgoing
mail and then periodically send itself to others who you send email to.
Because these people will think you sent them this program, and since
they presumeably trust you, they will run it and infect their computer.

If you did execute the program, or were already infected (such as
robden at mweb.co.za is), then you will need to remove the worm.  A quick
search of the net will find lots of web pages on the subject, one such
page from a company that specializes in this kind of thing is:

   http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/happy99.worm.html

The safest approach is to never execute ANY program received from the
internet unless you have verified the source of the program, and even then
you should periodically check your system for computer viruses, worms,
etc..

Some of you will not receive this message, because your service provider
has software installed that blocks messages infected with this worm.

I am sorry for this, but I am not currently setup to filter the coblist
for infected messages.  There is a minimal facility available to me
with which I think I can filter this particular critter, but there will
always be others to watch out for, it is just one of the hazards of being
on the internet.


Shannon C. Dealy      |                    DeaTech Research Inc.
dealy at deatech.com     |               - Custom Software Development -
                      |         Embedded Systems, Real-time, Device Drivers
                      |      Networking, Scientific & Engineering Applications
                      |                       www.deatech.com