Mario Virus

Virus Name: Mario Aliases: Mario.673 V Status: New Discovered: January, 1996 Symptoms: .EXE file growth; TSR Origin: Unknown Eff Length: 673 - 689 Bytes Type Code: PRsE - Parasitic Resident .EXE Infector Detection Method: F-Prot 2.22+, AVTK 7.60+, IBMAV 2.41D+, ViruScan 2.51+, NAV 3.09 9607+, NAVBoot 0.A 9607+, PCScan, ChAV, AVTK/N 7.60+, NAV/N 2.0 9607+, NShld 2.32 9607+, Innoc 4.0+ Removal Instructions: Delete infected files General Comments: The Mario or Mario.673 virus was received in January, 1996, along with one variant, Mario.746. Mario is a memory resident infector of .EXE files. When the first Mario infected program is executed, this virus will install itself memory resident as a low system memory TSR of 992 bytes. Interrupts 18, 21, and 24 will be hooked by the virus in memory. Once the Mario virus is memory resident, it may infect .EXE files when they are executed or opened, but not on copy, though it does not always infect .EXE files it encounters. Programs infected with the Mario virus will have a file length increase of 673 to 689 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 be altered. The following text string is visible within the viral code: "Mario Genius" It is unknown what the Mario virus may do besides replicate. Known variant(s) of Mario are: Mario.746: Also received in January, 1996, this is a 746 byte variant of the Mario virus described above. It becomes memory resident at the top of system memory but below the 640K DOS boundary, hooking interrupts 18 and 21. Available free memory, as indicated by the DOS CHKDSK program from DOS 5.0, will have decreased by 1,296 bytes. Once resident, this variant may infect .EXE files when they are executed or opened, but not on copy. Infected programs will have a file length increase of 746 to 760 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 be altered. No text strings are visible within the viral code. Origin: Unknown January, 1996.