Mannequin Virus
Virus Name: Mannequin
Aliases:
V Status: Rare
Discovered: January, 1992
Symptoms: .COM & .EXE growth; decrease in total system & available free
memory; interference with printing
Origin: Unknown
Eff Length: 778 Bytes
Type Code: PRhA - Parasitic Resident .COM & .EXE Infector
Detection Method: ViruScan, F-Prot, Sweep, AVTK, ChAV,
IBMAV, NAV, NAVDX, VAlert, PCScan,
NShld, LProt, Sweep/N, Innoc, NProt, AVTK/N, NAV/N,
IBMAV/N
Removal Instructions: Delete infected files
General Comments:
The Mannequin virus was received in January, 1992. Its origin or
point of original isolation is unknown. Mannequin is a memory
resident infector of .COM and .EXE files. It does not infect
COMMAND.COM.
The first time a program infected with Mannequin is executed, the
Mannequin 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 848 bytes. Interrupt 12's return will not have
been moved. Interrupts 17 and 21 will be hooked by the Mannequin
virus in memory.
Once the Mannequin virus is memory resident, it will infect .COM
and .EXE programs when they are executed. Infected programs will
have a file length increase of 778 bytes with the virus being
located at the end of the infected file. The file's date and time
in a DOS disk directory listing will not have been altered. Two
text strings can be found within the viral code in Mannequin
infected files:
"RQSP2"
"COMMAND.COM"
Systems infected with Mannequin may experience difficults or
interference when attempting to print to the system printer.