Peste Virus

Virus Name: Peste Aliases: Peste.2753 V Status: New Discovered: May, 1996 Symptoms: .COM & .EXE growth; decrease in available free memory Origin: Unknown Eff Length: 2,753 - 2,769 Bytes Type Code: PRhAK - Parasitic Resident .COM & .EXE Infector Detection Method: AVTK, IBMAV, ViruScan, NAV, NAVDX, AVTK/N, IBMAV/N, NShld, NAV/N Removal Instructions: Delete infected files General Comments: The Peste virus was received in May, 1996. Its origin or point of isolation is unknown. Peste is a memory resident encrypted virus which infects .COM and .EXE files, including COMMAND.COM. When the first Peste infected program is executed, this virus will install itself memory resident at the top of system memory but below the 640K DOS boundary, not moving interrupt 12's return. Available free memory, as indicated by the DOS CHKDSK program from DOS 5.0, will have decreased by 2,752 bytes. Interrupts 21 and 04 will be hooked by the virus in memory, though they will not point to the area in memory occupied by the virus. Once the Peste virus is memory resident, it will infect .COM and .EXE files, including COMMAND.COM, when they are executed. Infected programs will have a file length increase of 2,753 to 2,769 bytes with the virus being located at the end of the file. The program's date and time in the DOS disk directory listing will not be altered. The following text strings are encrypted within the viral code: "Pest (c) 12/10/93 by (and best wishes from) PRIEST Int., Gbw/Germany" "ASCECLHVSPF-ACPRVINWI" It is unknown what the Peste virus may do besides replicate.