Commonwealth Virus

Virus Name: Commonwealth Aliases: V Status: Rare Discovery: December, 1993 Symptoms: .COM & .ESE growth; file date/time seconds set to "58"; TSR Origin: Unknown Eff Length: 800 - 815 Bytes Type Code: PRsA - Parasitic Resident .COM & .EXE Infector Detection Method: F-Prot, ViruScan, AVTK, Sweep, IBMAV, NAVDX, VAlert, NAV, ChAV, PCScan, Sweep/N, NShld, AVTK/N, NProt, IBMAV/N, Innoc, NAV/N Removal Instructions: Delete infected files General Comments: The Commonwealth virus was received in December, 1993. Its origin or point of isolation is unknown. Commonwealth is a memory resident infector of .COM and .EXE programs, but not COMMAND.COM. When the first Commonwealth infected program is executed, this virus will install itself memory resident as a low system memory TSR of 2,048 bytes. Interrupt 21 will be hooked by the virus in memory. Once the Commonwealth virus is memory resident, it will infect .COM and .EXE programs when they are executed. Infected programs will have a file length increase of 800 to 815 bytes with the virus being located at the end of the file. The program's date and time in the DOS disk directory listing will not appear to be altered, but it will have the seconds field set to "58". The following text string is encrypted within the Commonwealth viral code: "Commonwealth of Independent States" It is unknown what Commonwealth does besides replicate.