Syslock
Syslock
Type File virus
Creator
Date Discovered 1988.11
Place of Origin
Source Language
Platform DOS
File Type(s) .com, .exe
Infection Length 3,551 Bytes
Reported Costs

Syslock is an encrypted virus from 1988. It is a simple direct action infector of both .com and .exe files that replaces instances of the string "Microsoft" with "Macrosoft".

Behavior

When Syslock is executed, it searches the entire hard disk for .com and .exe files and appends itself to one random file. It searches for the string "microsoft" in any combination of upper or lower case characters and replaces it with "MACROSOFT". The virus will not infect files if it finds an environment variable named "SYSLOCK" set to the "@" character.

Variants

Advent

The first subvariant only replicates if it is on a .exe file and only infects .com files. These infected .com files will not produce a new virus when executed.

Advent.B fixes this problem. It is between 2,768 and 2,783 bytes. In December it will display four candles and play "Oh Tannenbaum" on the system speaker.

Cookie

This variant is 2,232 to 2,251 bytes long and originated in Europe in January of 1991. Systems infected with this variant may experience system hangs. It may also display the message "I want a COOKIE!".

Macho

This variant is almost entirely similar to the original, except that it replaces "microsoft" with "MACHOSOFT".

Sources

Patricia Hoffman. Online VSUM, "SysLock".

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