334 Virus
Virus Name: 334
Aliases: Made
V Status: Rare
Discovery: May, 1992
Symptoms: .COM file growth; file date/time change
Origin: England
Eff Length: 334 Bytes
Type Code: PNCK - Parasitic Non-Resident .COM Infector
Detection Method: ViruScan, F-Prot, Sweep, IBMAV, AVTK, NAVDX,
NAV, VAlert, PCScan, ChAV,
NShld, Sweep/N, Innoc, NProt, AVTK/N, LProt, NAV/N,
IBMAV/N
Removal Instructions: Delete infected files
General Comments:
The 334 virus was submitted in May, 1992. It is originally from
England. This virus is a non-resident direct action infector of
.COM programs, including COMMAND.COM.
When a program infected with the 334 virus is executed, the 334 virus
will check the first three .COM programs in the current directory to
see if they are infected. When it finds the first uninfected of
these three .COM files, it will infect it. Once the virus has
completed this process, the program the user was attempting to
execute will run.
Programs infected with the 334 virus will have a file length increase
of 334 bytes with the virus being located at the end of the infected
file. The program's date and time in the DOS disk directory listing
will have been updated to the system date and time when infection
occurred. No text strings are visible within the viral code in
infected programs.
The 334 virus doesn't appear to do anything besides replicate.
Known variant(s) of 334 are:
334-B: Based on the 334 virus described above, this variant is
very similar. It infects one .COM file in the current
directory when an infected program is executed, though it
does not infect .COM files past the first five in the
current directory. Infected programs will have a file length
increase of 334 bytes with the virus being located at the end
of the file. The file's date and time in the DOS disk
directory listing will have been updated to the current
system date and time when infection occurred. The following
text is encrypted within the viral code:
"Made in England"
"*.COM"
Origin: England December, 1992.
334-C: Based on the 334 virus described above, this is another
very minor variant. It contains the following encrypted
text strings:
"Made in England"
"*.COM M"
Origin: England May, 1993.