Subject: Re: Robin S Socha

From: [email-masked] (R. Stewart Ellis)
Date: 1 Apr 1997 15:20:18 GMT

[email-masked] (Ray Cummins) writes:

 >On Mon, 31 Mar 1997, Robin S Socha wrote:

 >Well, it really doesn't matter what he wrote.  I'd just like to say I'm
 >really looking forward to killfile support in Pine.

Well, if you did not read the whole thing, you missed a very "Good Time".
It was one of the better parodies of the "newbie virus" that I have seen.
Of course, people who read email with MS's MUA's and who have Word on their
systems really *do* have to worry about reading the wrong email messages,
because of Word macro viruses.

--
  R.Stewart(Stew) Ellis, Assoc.Prof., (Off)810-762-9765   ___________________
  Humanities & Social Science,  GMI Eng.& Mgmt.Inst. ()  /   _____  ______
  Flint, MI 48504    Free speech and free software!  /\ /        / /  /  / /
  Web admin:  http://www.gmi.edu/      [email-masked]   /________/ /  /  / /

---

From: [email-masked] (Sylvain Robitaille)
Date: 4 Apr 1997 05:12:35 GMT

On 3 Apr 1997 13:56:21 -0600,
Randy Gober LTA/GRA <[email-masked]> wrote:

>In article <[email-masked]>,
>Nathan D Richards  <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>Email viruses are a hoax!
>>There is NO SUCH THING as an email virus!
>>
>
>Go back and read the whole thing. You may have missed the point
>on the "Better Times Virus"

You only get the point if you've read the Good Times Virus alerts. Anybody who
reads this newsgroup with any amount of regularity, (that would require a
termninal in the reading room, right? I'll have to get on that), would know
that Robin knows enough to not have been sending that seriously. Now, even if
someone didn't know that, if they read the message carefully, they'd see
enough clues to indicate that this was not just any hoax, but a hoaxed hoax.

So what does the Socha virus do, btw???

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sylvain Robitaille
[email-masked]          http://alcor.concordia.ca/~sp_robi

Another dream that failed.  There's nothing sadder.
		-- Kirk, "This side of Paradise", stardate 3417.3
----------------------------------------------------------------------

---

From: Robert de Bath <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 07:17:25 +0100 (BST)

> because of Word macro viruses.
Oh yes, indeed they do! Mcafee have now found a word macro virus that
will startup microsoft mail and mail itself as an attachment to three
random people in your address book ...

The receiver still has to read the attachment manually though.

The virus message has the subject "You have GOT to read this!"

The virus/worm is called 'ShareTheFun' ...

--
Rob.                           (Robert de Bath <[email-masked]>)

---

From: Jim Love <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 1997 19:56:39 -0600

[email-masked] wrote:

>snip<
 
> But then, how many people in this newsgroup read their mail in Netscape
> anyway? <g>
> 
> -Ken

Oops! No wonder I couldn't find any naked lady binaries to decode!

Seriously, I find lurking a very educational hobby. If I'm going to be
talking to Unix boxes, I'm not afraid to try to learn when and where I
can.

Thanks for the education.
-- 
Jim Love

mailto:[email-masked]
mailto:[email-masked]
mailto:[email-masked]     
http://www.lspages.com/jimlove.html

---

From: Robin S Socha <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 13:18:34 +0200 (CEST)

>>>Email viruses are a hoax! There is NO SUCH THING as an email virus!
  >>Go back and read the whole thing. You may have missed the point on the
  >>"Better Times Virus"
  >You only get the point if you've read the Good Times Virus alerts.
  >Anybody who reads this newsgroup with any amount of regularity, (that
  >would require a termninal in the reading room, right? I'll have to get on
  >that), 
  
You don't have one yet? Couldn't live without it >:->
  
  >would know that Robin knows enough to not have been sending that
  >seriously. 

Shhhh, you're runing my reputation :)

  >So what does the Socha virus do, btw???

It turns you into a really KeWL guy with a profound knowledge of nothing
special, a revolting sense of humour, a large set of random flames just a
keystroke away and a throng of fervent adorers like that certain loser
somewhere at the other end of intelligence.

Get it while you can!

Be warned though, there is a lame copy out there that infects *.com and
*.exe files. But who's using Windos, anyway? What's a virus? Bill WHO?

Later,
Robin

P.S. *blush*

-    Keep your questions and comments relevant to the focus of
     the discussion group.

Well, whatever...

---

From: Robin S Socha <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 13:36:48 +0200 (CEST)

>On 1 Apr 1997, R. Stewart Ellis wrote:

["interesting" stuff about Wixword snipped]
  >random people in your address book ...

Thousands of Beta testers for Windos 00 or whatever the name was have found
a macro virus that will startup microsoft mail and mail a list of all files
on their system to Gates, along with some private stuff. So what? You ask
for it, you get it... Besides, that virus is at least 6 months old *yawn*
and a lame one, too... I like the one that fdisks your hdds without prior
notice. I think it's called NT 4.0 or something.

  >The receiver still has to read the attachment manually though.

You read with your hands? Interesting idea, but since it's Word...
everything is possible... Where do you want to grab today?

  >The virus message has the subject "You have GOT to read this!"

Naah, the virus message has the subject "made for Windows 3.x or better". It
doesn't say "You have GOT to trash this!", though. Gates ought to be sued
for criminal negligence...

  >The virus/worm is called 'ShareTheFun' ...

It's called "ShareWare" and comes on handcrafted CDs with 650MB zipped
"commericial" software that doesn't have any copy protection to speak of.

Serious threat: Either you guys stop this thread, or at least have the
decency to take my name off the subject line. TIA. :)

Later,
Robin

-----
Q: Where do you want to go today?
A: Been there, got the t-shirt.

---

From: [email-masked] (Randy Gober LTA/GRA)
Date: 3 Apr 1997 13:56:21 -0600

----Randy

---

From: Sean Witham <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 15:57:45 +0100 (BST)

> The receiver still has to read the attachment manually though.

So is it an email virus or a word virus ? Any virus can be sent as an
attachment. You need a mailer that auto explodes/executes them to
cause a problem. The fact that is makes specific use of your mailer to
then resend itself may make the difference. So it a MS Mail virus ?

--Sean

---

From: Robin S Socha <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 17:54:06 +0200 (CEST)

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

  >On Fri, 4 Apr 1997, Robert de Bath wrote:

[snipped irrelevant stuff about a bunch of Visual Basic]
  >So is it an email virus or a word virus ? 
[snipped more whining about Word]

1. This is the pine discussion forum, not the Mickysoft loser list.
2. Even if it were an email virus, it would only affect people whose names
   are in MS-mail address books -- which is fine with me.
3. With Word Basic's capability of writing into the keyboard buffer, you can
   do almost anything. Why make a fuss about this? It's a Word Macro Virus
   that launches MS Mail. Nothing new about it, is there?

So will you twits stop using my name to discuss this bullcrap? There's Mime
Sweeper and a couple of other programs that care of these "viruses". After
all, they're just some Word Macros. If you don't find a way to disable the
autostart function for those macros, I'd say it's your own fault if you
nevertheless read mail from the net..

And: Who should send you these documents? Apart from the fact that I'm using
StarWriter for Linux (visit http://www.stardiv.de for a full office suite
for Linux for *free*) to open Word documents (what's a virus, anyway?), who
should send me that "infected" documents? If you read a document that isn't
pgp-signed; if you're reading stuff from a.s.s.; if you exchange Word
documents with people whose system you're not running yourself; if you
blablabla... In short: It's all your fault. In "times like these" with
millions of aol users on the loose, it's up to you to protect your system.
Using an operating system instead of Windos seems a good first step to me.

Could this thread be buried now, *prettyplease* ?   
   
TIA

Robin

---

From: Nathan D Richards <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 1997 17:42:27 -0500

---

From: Robert de Bath <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 20:11:03 +0100 (BST)

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

>   >So is it an email virus or a word virus ? 
It's a word virus, like the man says, don't lose any sleep over it.

> [snipped more whining about Word]
I prefer wine.

> 1. This is the pine discussion forum, not the Mickysoft loser list.
Trees and furniture only A?

>    are in MS-mail address books -- which is fine with me.
_hopefully_ even µsoft aren't thick enough to make any software that allows
a true email virus, tho based on activeX I wouldn't make a bet.

> So will you twits stop using my name to discuss this bullcrap?
Isn't it wonderful how some people like to get up your nose, I bet you're
trying it 'cause you love all those messages all about you. Without your
_wonderful_ input this thread would have died already. 

> for Linux for *free*) to open Word documents (what's a virus, anyway?), who
Can it open MS-Works docs too ? If it can I can reuse the JAZ disk that's
full of dross.

> ...
Yes, Yes, we know 'doze == crap, but most suits have an unholy horror of the
'U' word. 

> Could this thread be buried now, *prettyplease* ?   
I _know_ you don't really want us to do that!

> begin 600 believe.uue
> M22`J<F5A;&QY*B!C86YN;W0@8F5L:65V92!Y;W4G<F4@<F5A9&EN9R!T:&ES BXN"@```
> end
Why not ? Of course it doesn't help that you've broken it.

- --

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From: [email-masked] (Sven Guckes)
Date: 3 Apr 1997 21:13:07 GMT

[email-masked] ([email-masked]):
> > For people using UNIX email programs on a UNIX machine, no,
> > but there do seem to be email viruses for Word that involve using the Word
> > macro language and having your email program launch Word as a viewer.
> There's also some dead simple JavaScript code that can wreak havoc with
> your machine if you read your email in Netscape with JavaScript enabled.
> Nothing really destructive, but it can lock-up Netscape, and crash some
> systems (haven't tried it on a Unix box yet).

Well, people using Word and/or Java deserve it.  :-)

Sven

-- 
error: Please remove smileys for posting not on April 1st!

---

From: Nathan D Richards <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 5 Apr 1997 13:22:05 -0500

On Thu, 3 Apr 1997 [email-masked] wrote:

> > For people using UNIX email programs on a UNIX machine, no, but there do
> > seem to be email viruses for Word that involve using the Word macro language
> > and having your email program launch Word as a viewer.
> 
> Hey, go easy on him -- he must still be recovering from his
> humor-bypass surgery.  (I, for one, enjoyed reading Robin's post, which
> Nathan obviously didn't.) 
I understood it after I read more of it.

---

From: Nathan D Richards <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 5 Apr 1997 13:21:09 -0500

> on the "Better Times Virus"
Yeah I did.  Sorry.