DOSHunter Virus

Virus Name: DOSHunter Aliases: B3 V Status: Common Discovered: November, 1992 Symptoms: .COM file growth; decrease in total system & available free memory; system hard disk corruption Origin: The Netherlands Eff Length: 483 Bytes Type Code: PRhCK - Parasitic Resident .COM Infector Detection Method: ViruScan, AVTK, Sweep, F-Prot, IBMAV, NAV, NAVDX, VAlert, PCScan, ChAV, NShld, Sweep/N, Innoc, NProt, AVTK/N, LProt, IBMAV/N, NAV/N Removal Instructions: Delete infected files General Comments: The DOSHunter virus was submitted in November, 1992. It was isolated in The Netherlands. DOSHunter is a memory resident infector of .COM programs, including COMMAND.COM. When the first program infected with the DOSHunter virus 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 1,408 bytes. Interrupt 21 will be hooked by the virus. Once the DOSHunter 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 483 bytes with the virus being located at the beginning of the file. The program's date and time in the DOS disk directory listing will not be altered. No text strings are visible within the viral code. The DOSHunter virus activates on June 26th of any year, at which time it will trash the first 128 sectors of the system hard disk.