Wanderer Virus

Virus Name: Wanderer Aliases: V Status: New Discovered: November, 1993 Symptoms: .COM file growth; file date/time seconds = 62; decrease in total system & available free memory Origin: Unknown Eff Length: 400 Bytes Type Code: PRhCK - Parasitic Resident .COM Infector Detection Method: AVTK, ViruScan, F-Prot, Sweep, IBMAV, NAV, NAVDX, VAlert, PCScan, ChAV, NProt, AVTK/N, Sweep/N, NShld, IBMAV/N, Innoc, NAV/N, LProt Removal Instructions: Delete infected files General Comments: The Wanderer virus was received in November, 1993. Its origin is unknown. Wanderer is a memory resident infector of .COM programs, including COMMAND.COM. When the first Wanderer infected program is executed, this virus will install itself memory resident at the top of system memory but below the 640K DOS boundary. Total system and available free memory, as indicated by the DOS CHKDSK program, will have decreased by 416 bytes. Interrupt 21 will be hooked by the virus in memory. Once the virus is memory resident, it will infect .COM programs, including COMMAND.COM, when they are executed. Infected programs will have a file length increase of 400 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 appear to be altered, though the seconds field will have been set to "62". The following text string is visible within the Wanderer viral code in infected programs: "As wolfs among sheep we have wandered"