17 Jun 1998
Strangedays indeed - Sophos reports on cross-infecting virus in MS Office 97
'StrangeDays' virus, migrates between Word and Excel
files.
Sophos has just reported on a macro virus which migrates between
Word and Excel environments. The Office 97 virus, named
'StrangeDays', contains a warhead which causes all files to be
deleted on the 26th day of the month.
The virus is able to travel between the two environments because
Word and Excel share the same macro language core, Visual Basic for
Applications 5, in Office 97. "Previously, virus writers wanting to
produce viruses for Office 95 and 97 have chosen to infect either
Word documents or Excel spreadsheets," said Paul Ducklin, head of
research at Sophos. "StrangeDays contains no Word or Excel specific
code and is therefore a true Office 97 virus, able to cross-infect
the two. The virus even includes code which attempts to automate
such cross-infection. Fortunately, this code contains bugs and does
not work correctly."
An analysis of the virus can be found at http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/of97strangeday.html.
For information on all the very latest virus threats and to collect
your free 'Data Security Pack', please visit Sophos at Networks 98,
Stand 10H60, June 23-25, 1998 at the NEC, Birmingham.
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