A new computer virus shows its creative touch - by generating
random Haiku poetry when it infects computers.
Haiku is an ancient form of Japanese poetry in which the sounds
and rhythms of words are more important than the words themselves.
The W32/Haiku virus, written by Sandman of the 29A virus-writing
gang, uses a table of different words to display a different Haiku
everytime it is run.
W32/Haiku is not in the wild, and has not been seen at any
customer sites. As such Sophos antivirus researchers do not believe
it currently poses a significant threat. Detection of the virus
will be included in Sophos Anti-Virus version 3.32.
Although Haiku can be considered a genuine art form, viruses
cause real harm to the data of individuals and corporations.
For the full description of W32/Haiku please read the Sophos
analysis below.
W32/Haiku virus analysis
W32/Haiku is an email-aware worm that forwards itself to any
email addresses it find in files on the hard disk.
The worm forwards itself as an attachment called haiku.exe. The
subject of the message is "Fw: Compose your own haikus!" and the
message body:
:))
----- Original Message -----
>Old pond...
> a frog leaps in
> water's sound."
> Matsuo Basho.
>
>DO YOU WANT TO COMPOSE YOUR OWN HAIKUS?
>
>Haiku is a small poetry with oriental metric that appeared in
the
>XVI century and is being very popular, mainly in Japan and
the
>USA.
>
>It's done to trascend the limitation imposed by the usual
language
>and the linear/scientific thinking that treat the nature and
the
>human being as a machine.
>
>It usually has 3 lines and 17 syllables distributed in 5, 7 and
5.
>It must register or indicate a moment, sensation, impression
or
>drama of a specific fact of nature. It's almost like a photo
of
>some specific moment of nature.
>
>More than inspiration, what you need in order to compose a
real
>haiku is meditation, effort and perception.
>
>DO YOU WANT TO COMPOSE YOUR OWN HAIKUS?
>
>Now you can! it is very easy to get started in this old
poetry
>art. Attached to this e-mail you will find a copy of a
simple
>haiku generator. It will help you in order to understand
the
>basics of the metric, rhyme and subjects which should be
used
>when composing a real haiku... just check it out! it's
freeware
>and you can use and spread it as long as you want!
>
>
When the worm is run it will copy itself to HaikuG.exe in the
Windows directory and modify WIN.INI to to ensure that it is run
each time Windows is started. A randomly generated piece of poetry
is displayed in a message box with the title of "Haiku
Generator".
For example:
The Haiku displayed is generated randomly from the following
list of words:
bridge, light, sea, fish,
butterfly, foghorn, day, moon, evening, spring, sunset, boat,
petal, blossom, stone, mist, passage, darkness, dolphin, ant,
shadow, star, frost, cicada, wind, garden, orchard, chestnut,
forest, leaf, sun, winter, autumn, summer, morning, tree, branch,
smoke, grape, rainbow, blackness, shade, edge, snowflake, raindrop,
starling, stem, charcoal, silence, flurry, trunk, gnat, pear,
strawberry, breeze, grass, silence, worm, solstice, rain,
cauliflower, dawn, fire, splinter, cedar, skyline, mushroom, foam,
roar, child, reflected, calm, distant, small, shifting, long,
overlooking, delicate, tiny, colorful, silent, noisy, faint,
bruised, plucked, ripening, swollen, dark, new, old, brittle,
steaming, decaying, single, wet, bare, bright, cold, heavy,
purplish, fleeting, smooth, pale, imprisoned, lightning, frozen,
cupped, dewy, shriveled, fiery, hunkered, stirring, chattering,
misshapen, taut, matted, visible, wild, surprising, sudden,
trembling, twisting, perfect, flashing, frosted, solemn, rising,
lost, loved, this, that, these, those, of, to, with, from, in, on,
slowly, calmly, soon, suddenly, eagerly, afterward, slightly,
toward, now, the, a, and, or, share, shared, stop, stopped, recall,
recalled, drive, drove, chase, chased, contain, contained, return,
returned, rise, rose, ripple, rippled, move, moved, fall, fell,
hang, hung, miss, missed, catch, caught, start, started, tousle,
tousled, pass, passed, pluck, plucked, blind, blinded, crush,
crushed, awake, awoke, rattle, rattled, pierce, pierced.
The virus downloads a WAV file called HAIKU.WAV from an internet
website, and stores it in the root directory of the C: drive. This
WAV file is played and then deleted..
Listen to the WAV
now.
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