Poem Virus


 Virus Name:  Poem 
 Aliases:     ACDC 
 V Status:    Rare 
 Discovered:  September, 1991 
 Symptoms:    .COM growth; message displayed; hard disk corruption 
 Origin:      Republic of South Africa 
 Eff Length:  1,825 - 1,888 Bytes 
 Type Code:   PRfCK - Parasitic Resident .COM Infector 
 Detection Method:  ViruScan, AVTK, F-Prot, Sweep, ChAV, 
                    NAV, IBMAV, NAVDX, VAlert, PCScan, 
                    NShld, Sweep/N, LProt, Innoc, NProt, IBMAV/N, 
                    AVTK/N, NAV/N 
 Removal Instructions:  Delete infected files 
 
 General Comments: 
       The Poem virus was isolated in the Republic of South Africa in 
       September, 1991, by Oliver Steudler.  Poem is a memory resident 
       infector of .COM programs, including COMMAND.COM. 
 
       The first time a program infected with Poem is executed, the virus 
       will become memory resident in low available system memory. 
       Interrupts 01, 03, 21, and 7C will have been hooked by the Poem 
       virus in memory. 
 
       Once Poem is memory resident, it will infect .COM programs, other 
       than very small .COM programs, when they are executed.  If 
       COMMAND.COM is executed, it will become infected as well.  Poem 
       infected programs will have a file size increase of approximately 
       1,825 to 1,888 bytes with the virus being located at the end of 
       the infected file.  There will be no change to the file's date and 
       time in the DOS disk directory. 
 
       The copy of Poem resident in memory keeps track of how many times 
       interrupt 21 has been called.  Once interrupt 21 has been called 
       2,112 time, the virus will display the following poem on the 
       system display, and the user will be prompted to press Escape to 
       continue: 
 
               "Void - Composed by Marvin Giskard for T.... 
 
                In a field a million buds stood,Over them a million days 
                came  - a day a bud -  opening  up one by one with their 
                directed light.But one didn't do as others did,It waited 
                for only your  loving rays  to shine upon it to open its 
                pedals  revealing  the  pure beauty of its sincere love. 
                Never  being  unfaithful to its dream of the day of your 
                light, Forced  to  resist  any  other  light but yours - 
                because  of it - until  the  day  the brilliance of your 
                life sustaining light shines it will be there : wanting, 
                wishing, waiting.  Many were the buds you rather  shined 
                upon  opening  them - revealing  their  phony colours. I 
                willed  your light onto me but others you tried instead, 
                No  subtle  motion  reached you, still I refused other's 
                light - holding out for you - Even when your  light will 
                fade,  Not  having  found  one to do your light justice, 
                mine will still be there : wanting, wishing, waiting. 
 
                22 Nov - 21 Dec" 
 
       On December 21 of any year, Poem will activate.  At that time, the 
       virus will also display the above poem, as well as overwrite the 
       first 1,221 sectors of the system hard disk, drive C:, with an 
       unencrypted copy of the virus' code. 

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