Self Virus
Virus Name: Self
Aliases: Polish-457, Polish-550, Self-457, Self-550
V Status: Rare
Discovered: November, 1991
Symptoms: .COM file growth; file date/time change
Origin: Poland
Eff Length: 457 or 550 bytes
Type Code: PNCK - Parasitic Non-Resident .COM Infector
Detection Method: ViruScan, Sweep, AVTK, NAV, F-Prot,
IBMAV, NAVDX, VAlert, PCScan, ChAV,
NShld, LProt, Sweep/N, Innoc, NProt, AVTK/N,
NAV/N, IBMAV/N
Removal Instructions: Delete infected files
General Comments:
The Self virus is actually two viruses which were received from
Europe in November, 1991. They originated in Poland. Both viruses
are non-resident direct action infectors of .COM programs,
including COMMAND.COM.
When a program infected with one of the Self viruses is executed,
the virus will search the current directory to find all previously
uninfected .COM programs. All uninfected programs found will become
infected with the Self virus. The file length increase will be
either 457 or 550 bytes, depending on which of the two viruses is
present, with the virus being located at the beginning of the
infected file. In either case, the infected file's date and time in
the DOS directory will have been updated to the current system date
and time when infection occurred.
Known variant(s) of Self are:
Self-457: The 457 byte version of the Self virus. Infected
files will have increased in size by 457 bytes. The
following text strings can be found in infected programs:
"MS *.COM" and "RZRZ". This variant is also known as
Polish-457.
Self-550: The 550 byte version of the Self virus. Infected
files will have increased in size by 550 bytes. The
following text strings can be found in infected programs:
"CMS*.COM", "*.EXE", and "QYQY". This variant is also
known as Polish-550.