Steve Kurtz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>This appears to be an example of random garbage email output of the "Happy 99"
>virus that is transmitted by opening a *FILE* attached to an email. I'm a
>moderator of ecological-economics list, & it was sent twice. The poster
>did send
>another post in readable english, so the virus must seek recent addresses.
>begin 644 Happy99.exe
>M35I0``(````$``\`__\``+@`````````0``:````````````````````````
>M``````````````````````$``+H0``X?M`G-(;@!3,TAD)!4:&ES('!R;V=R
>M86T@;75S="!B92!R=6X@=6YD97(@5VEN,S(-"B0W````````````````````
This is not random garbage - it is the uuencoded (repacked for transmission
as 7-bit ascii text) binary of the virus itself. The right -justified
format and leading "M" on each line are diagnostic of uuencoding. It
is not enough to extract the file to activate the virus - the resulting
.exe file must be run, and then it will only affect DOS + Win xx
machines. If you have a mail reader which automatically runs .exe files
extracted as mail attachments, you should dig through the program's
configuration and disable this feature, as it is just begging for trouble.
-Pete Vincent
