AEP Virus

Virus Name: AEP Aliases: AEP.626 V Status: New Discovery: January, 1995 Symptoms: .COM file growth; file date/time changes; TSR Origin: Unknown Eff Length: 626 Bytes Type Code: PRsCK - Parasitic Resident .COM Infector Detection Method: F-Prot, ViruScan, AVTK, IBMAV, Sweep, NAVDX, VAlert, NAV, PCScan, ChAV, NShld, NProt, IBMAV/N, AVTK/N, Sweep/N, NAV/N, Innoc Removal Instructions: Delete infected files General Comments: The AEP or AEP.626 virus was received in January, 1995. Its origin is unknown, though it is suspected to be from North America. AEP is a memory resident infector of .COM files, including COMMAND.COM. When the first AEP infected program is executed, this virus will install itself memory resident as a low system memory TSR of 944 bytes. Interrupts 1C, 21, and 2F will be hooked by the virus in memory. Once the AEP virus is memory resident, it may infect .COM files when they are executed. It may take several executions of a program before the file becomes infected. Programs infected with the AEP virus will have a file length increase of 626 bytes with the virus being located at the beginning of the file. The program'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 string is visible within the viral code in all AEP infected programs: "(C) 1993 American Eagle Publications, Inc., All rights reserved!" It is unknown what this virus may do besides replicate.