In the previous article we met Pakistani Brain, a relatively harmless malware, which is considered to be the first virus ever created for computers. This particular virus infected the boot sector of storage media, configuring the file allocation table (FAT). The virus we will remember today is special because it is an early form of boot sector virus (preceding Brain ). We are talking about Stoned.
Stoned created in 1987. It is said to have been written by a university student in Wellington, New Zealand, and by 1989 had spread widely in New Zealand and Australia. It was one of the first viruses, and along with its many variants, was particularly widespread in the early 1990s.
Let's learn a few things about the most widespread virus of the first decade of viruses.
What exactly did he do?
STONED created a bad sector in the boot sector ( /mbr infector ) and forced the computer to reboot repeatedly. As if that weren't enough, it also displayed a message on the user's screen with the phrase
“Your PC is now Stoned!” = “Your PC is now Stoned.”
The phrase was found in the affected boot sectors of infected floppy disks and in the master boot records of infected hard disks along with the phrase: “Legalise Marijuana” = “Legalize Marijuana”.
Variations:
There are many variants of the STONED virus, with minor differences between them. The most notable of these variants are:
1. This virus
This variant of the virus contains a politically motivated virus and contains the message:
“Bloody! June 4, 1989”.
2. Swedish Disaster
This virus contains the string “The Swedish Disaster”, which indicates that it may have been written in Sweden.
3. Manitoba
Closely related to the original Stoned, the variant called Manitoba differs mainly in that it does not store the original boot sector anywhere on the floppy disks, but simply overwrites it. It was probably written at the University of Manitoba.
4. Angelina
This variant of the STONED virus has stealth mechanisms. It is likely to have originated in Poland and contains the following message:
Greetings for ANGELINA!!!/by Garfield/Zielona Gora
I could write for hours, because there is really enough material available about the variants that have been released. If you have another variant of the Stoned virus in mind that impressed you, or you remember it from your own experience, you can write it in the comments. This is where our article for today comes to an end.
Next Saturday, at the next stop on our journey,
we will refer to the Internet Worm!
Don't miss it!
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