Bryan Reece wrote:

There was an e-mail sent to the list that had attached to it a virus. Well lucky me I got. It was a .com file that apparently turns your files into directories. I can't boot into Win95 since it turned my HIMEM.SYS into a directory. So, I seem to have fixed that, but now it says "access denied" and then prompts me with C:\>. Did anyone else get it? Has anyone heard or fixed this virus?

Yes. It's a deadly mutation of the GOOD TIMES virus.

(People actually go to the trouble of stripping off the leading crap from the uuencoded part and then *run a program* from someone called Fuck@yourself.up? Furrfu.)

from CIAC, http://www-gsb.uchicago.edu/comp_svcs/hoax.html

From ciac-bulletin@cheetah.llnl.gov Wed Nov 20 22:14:26 1996 Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 20:12:41 -0800 (PST) Reply-To: crawford@eek.llnl.gov Originator: ciac-bulletin@cheetah.llnl.gov Sender: ciac-bulletin@cheetah.llnl.gov From: crawford@eek.llnl.gov (David Crawford) To: khopper@midway.uchicago.edu Subject: CIAC Bulletin H-05: Internet Hoaxes X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Length: 21794

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- __________________________________________________________ The U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability ___ __ __ _ ___ / | /_\ / \___ __|__ / \ \___ __________________________________________________________ INFORMATION BULLETIN Internet Hoaxes: PKZ300, Irina, Good Times, Deeyenda, Ghost November 20, 1996 15:00 GMT Number H-05 ______________________________________________________________________________ PROBLEM: This bulletin addresses the following hoaxes and erroneous warnings: PKZ300 Warning, Irina, Good Times, Deeyenda, and Ghost.exe PLATFORM: All, via e-mail DAMAGE: Time lost reading and responding to the messages SOLUTION: Pass unvalidated warnings only to your computer security department or incident response team. See below on how to recognize validated and unvalidated warnings and hoaxes. ______________________________________________________________________________ VULNERABILITY New hoaxes and warnings have appeared on the Internet and old ASSESSMENT: hoaxes are still being cirulated. ______________________________________________________________________________ <snip> <snip> <snip> <snip> <snip> <snip> <snip> <snip> <snip> <snip> Good Times Virus Hoax ===================== The "Good Times" virus warnings are a hoax. There is no virus by that name in existence today. These warnings have been circulating the Internet for years. The user community must become aware that it is unlikely that a virus can be constructed to behave in the manner ascribed in the "Good Times" virus warning. For more information related to this urban legend, reference CIAC Notes 95-09. http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/notes/Notes09.shtml <snip> <snip> <snip> <snip> <snip> <snip> <snip> <snip> <snip> <snip> john