Introduction
+----------+
Welcome to VLAD issue number Seven which is slightly late mainly due to
the release of the joke VLAD April Fools edition (vladaf.zip).
A few groups have died recently. The biggest death was Phalcon/Skism who
are now officially dead from what I hear. NuKE likewise (thankfully).
SVL decided to break-up due to law changes in Slovakia, but will be
continuing as individual members. DC split up after producing two
magazines, which is why undernet #virus is now empty again.
Immortal Riot have merged with the unproductive Genesis to form a new
super-virusgroup called IR/G. A certain Australian member of IR has
a new type of virus ready for release, and you'll probably hear about
it on TV sometime in the future. The co-leaders of IR/G are
The Unforgiven (Sweden) and Rajaat (UK). They are both currently inactive,
so Sepultura (Australia) is now the defacto leader.
Now comes some sad news for all the avid VLAD readers. I (Qark) have
decided to retire from viruses, and Quantum has decided to join me. This
is probably the end for VLAD, although I am unsure what Darkman is doing,
as he will hold the rights to the VLAD name as soon as the VLAD#7 ZIPfile
is ready. I've decided to leave because I haven't got the time or
inclination to write viruses "full time" any longer. I still like mucking
around with them, that's still fun, but churning out endless reams of virus
texts and code wears you out after a while. I might still release the
occasional virus with the [Qark/VLAD] logo inside it but I won't be
committing myself to anything.
Since it's unlikely I'll be doing any -DOS- viruses in the future I'll just
leave you with a small idea I've been mulling over for a while. As an
interesting trick for polymorphism you might consider setting the DS to
segment F000 and doing random writes to it. Since F000+ is ROM, none of
the writes will have any effect, but would look great as garbage
instructions. Every poly engine has random reads, but none have random
writes (that I can think of). All heuristic scanners ignore reads (unless
they are within the limits of the virus body) but they always take note
of writes. Just remember you'd have to use CS: to do all your real writes.
You might want to make sure the writes also point within the virus (even
though they aren't actually writing there) to bluff the scanner into
thinking they're real. Anyway have a go, and see how you do.
Words from Quantum: I haven't written anything in so long I honestly don't
know why people still see me as being in vlad. Either way, I aint
disappearing like all the other ex-virus niggas out there. I'll be there
every day doing absolutely nothing like usual. The only thing I've infected
in this mag is linux which I've been spending 90% of my time on. On the
other hand, I am still doing something, just not viruses - well, not viable
viruses. You get that. See ya round the irc sewing circle.
Words from Metabolis: Not sure why I'm writing something here besides the
fact that I might as well not have bothered quitting, but now I can be at
rest. It is very likely Darkman will continue the vlad name and I look
forward to see what he does with it. Anyway, it was fun.
Back to qark:
As always, something comes along to fill the void, this time it is BIG.
STEALTH - A group with over fifty members from the Ukraine and Russia has
come along with truckloads of quality code and viruses. They actually have
grades in the group going from Beginner (just joined) all the way up to
Master (Can do anything). They recently released "Infected Voice" their
first english language magazine (the rest were in russian) which had some
good new ideas in it. They are responsible for the viruses: Maverick,
Tchechen and the world's second OBJ infector. It's good to see
enthusiastic new talent on the scene. Hopefully they won't discover IRC
and will spend their time coding instead of wasting it talking crap like
the rest of us did/still do.
I've run out of things to say now, so goodbye everyone.. you've all been
nice to me mostly and given me some good memories, and I hope I've
contributed something in return.
Qark
- VLAD #7 INDEX -