Classic Workbench and virus danger

[chip]

I use Classic Workbench lite version (under emulation)

I'd like to know what happens when i launch an exe which contain a virus

What can happen in this case ?

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Normally Viruses on Amiga were almost all on Floppies that once started infected RAM creating crashes and reboots of the system.

Many years ago a patch of Dopus5, formatted my hardsik leaving me in the system folders the same message telling me that I used a cracked pach.

--------- Italiano ---------

Normalmente i Virus su Amiga erano quasi tutti sui Floppy che una volta avviati infettavano RAM creando crash e riavvii del sistema.

Tanti anni fa una patch di Dopus5 mi formattò l'hardsik lasciandomi nelle cartelle di sistema uno stesso messaggio che mi diceva di aver usato un pach craccata.

[TjLaZer]

Depends on the Virus! Some were merely gags that would display a message randomly on the screen on reboots, and others would delete files or wipe your HD! I would get Virus Executor, that is a really good Anti Virus program.

[Misclegend]

Id say Amiga virus are much more dangerous than PC virus

in the AMiga there are malicious virus which can format your entire Hardisk or corrupt all the files inside, destroy HD partitions etc,

I had enough experience with them, specially downloading virus from Aminet which during 1997-2002 there was no antivirus control there
and there were many idiots who uploaded dangerous viruses

on the PC side, some virus can corrupt certain windows files or corrupt a windows installation, but they will not format your Hardisk or corrupt all files inside, at least personally I have never had that experience

Id say the Amiga virus are the most malicious and destructive on earth, however now they are totally exterminated, and in the web the Amiga software is all controlled and free of virus

is impossible or very difficult today to get a virus in the Amiga unless you start to test some games or programs from those old Amiga CDs with cracked stuff

[chip]

A virus can infect the system without NO SIGNALS in a way that it can infect all other exes which will be launched in Classic Workbench ?

If so, in which way can i avoid this ?

[AMIGASYSTEM]

VirusZ

VirusExecutor

Virus Checker II

[chip]

I have VirusZ in my system

So, i must launch the antivirus and check the exe before launching it ?

[Viceroy]

You worry too much about viruses Chip?

[chip]

That's something i'm trying to understand actually

[meynaf]

Originally Posted by chip

A virus can infect the system without NO SIGNALS in a way that it can infect all other exes which will be launched in Classic Workbench ?

Not exactly with no signals, no.
When the virus replicates it has to write on disk.
Thus unusual disk activity should catch your attention. This is the way i detected ebola 2 back in '97. Then VirusZ took care of it.

As peecees constantly hit the disk i felt a lot more secure on the miggy, really.

True viruses can be more dangerous on the Amiga but they are also much less resilient. You can't e.g. get rootkits that will resist eradication.

[chip]

Thanks meynaf

But to be honest, do you think UNDER EMULATION viruses are something to worried really about ?

[meynaf]

Originally Posted by chip

Thanks meynaf

But to be honest, do you think UNDER EMULATION viruses are something to worried really about ?

The situation is more or less the same as on real HW... Why would it differ ?

[chip]

I don't know actually, is something i'm trying to understand

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Misclegend

however now they are totally exterminated, and in the web the Amiga software is all controlled and free of virus

That's not true; TOSEC still contains many disks that have viruses hence this flag:

Virus - [v]

The image is damaged from the infection of a virus.

The variants are:

[v] - Virus (infected)

[v Virus] - Infected with virus

[v Virus Version] - Infected with virus of version

Note: Renamers should try to always using the same virus names, for example don't use "VirusXPTO1", "virusxpto1" and "Virus XPTO1" with different images for the same virus.

[malko]

@chip : Doing a full system scan with VirusZ should be enough I think
But if you are really worried about viruses (even when VirusZ is running on your OS), keep a copy of your floppy files.
Most of the Amiga viruses were created at a time when HD were not popular so they were designed to infect floppy disks. I can't remember a virus having ever, BitD, infected my HD, but, BitD, I have lost some original games (write-enabled floppy) due to soft resets after having played an infected cracked copy ... If you turn off the emulation, like a hard-reset on the Amiga, the virus will die.

[Retro1234]

I got a Virus in the past from some A-max emulator disk off a BBS collections it infects some shell commands just throwing up errors when booting Workbench- Sadam or something can't remember.

[chip]

Yep, guys, i will use an antivirus from now

I will check the exe just before launching it

It should be enough i think

Thanks for all the replies

[rcman]

I hadn't used my Amiga 2000 for a long time. Didn't think I needed to worry about viruses but when I started to use WinUAE strange things would happen when I brought files from my old system over.

I installed VirusZ in WinUAE and it found viruses on some of my files. When I went back and scanned all the files from my 2000 I couldn't believe how many were on there.

Now I use VirusZ all the time.
RC

[chip]

Yep, i see, better to use an antivirus then

Thanks for info rcman

[Viceroy]

Chip if you are that worried always make a copy of your WB HDF before you run anything!