889 Virus
Virus Name: 889
Aliases:
V Status: Rare
Discovery: March, 1993
Symptoms: .COM & .EXE growth; file date/time changes;
decrease in total system & available free memory
Origin: Unknown
Eff Length: 889 - 903 Bytes
Type Code: PRhA - Parasitic Resident .COM & .EXE Infector
Detection Method: AVTK, F-Prot, Sweep, ViruScan, IBMAV, VAlert,
NAV, NAVDX, PCScan, ChAV,
Sweep/N, NShld, NProt, AVTK/N, IBMAV/N, Innoc, NAV/N
Removal Instructions: Delete infected files
General Comments:
The 889 virus was submitted in March, 1993. Its origin or point of
isolation is unknown. 889 is a memory resident infector of .COM and
.EXE programs, but not COMMAND.COM.
When the first 889 infected program is executed, the 889 virus will
install itself memory resident at the top of system memory but below
the 640K DOS boundary, hooking interrupt 21. Total system and
available free memory, as indicated by the DOS CHKDSK program, will
have decreased by 960 bytes. Interrupt 12's return will not be
moved.
Once the 889 virus is memory resident, it will infect .COM and .EXE
programs, but not COMMAND.COM, when they are executed. Infected
.COM programs will have a file length increase of 889 bytes with the
virus being located at the end of the file. Infected .EXE programs
will increase in size by 889 to 903 bytes with the virus at the end
of the file. The infected program's date and time in the DOS disk
directory listing will have been updated to the current system date
and time when infection occurred. No text strings are visible within
the viral code in infected programs.
It is unknown what the 889 virus may do besides replicate.