Re: Win32 Port of TAR

From: Bruce P. Burrell (bpbat_private)
Date: Sun Nov 10 2002 - 23:20:33 PST

  • Next message: Brian C. Lane: "Re: 2 data recovery questions"

    On Fri, 8 Nov 2002 at 13:18 -0600, Kevin.M-CTR.Shannonat_private wrote:
    
    > This sounds like virus activity.
    
       Doesn't to me, though it might be a Trojan Horse.
    
    > Did you consider the possibility that a virus may have wiped the files
    > and directories and then wrote over the blocks?  As for the files on
    > root, where they all common file extensions like .doc .xls?  A virus
    > may have been written to search for those files and secure wipe them.
    > At least this would explain why the normal system files where still
    > present.
    
       Again, that would be a Trojan: no replication in sight here.
    
    > If the file system was FAT/FAT32, you can check out ECFS (Enforcement of
    > Critical File Systems) by Winternals (www.winternals.com).  This is a nice
    > utility for hashing the files sector by sector based on MD5, 128 bit or
    > other hashes.  At least this could tell you if the windows folder is still
    > present in the blocks.
    
       [Thanks for that; wasn't aware of it.  If others look, though, it's
    listed as "ECSF".]
    
    > I do have a question though; you stated that "4,096 Bytes in Bad Sectors."
    > Shouldn't those bad sectors appear when you list out all of the files based
    > on their hash?
    
       Bad sectors aren't in files.  They're marked as bad in the FAT at
    format time.
    
    > Can a virus mark sectors as bad? Anyone?
    
       Sure.
    
       As a matter of fact, the very first PC virus did exactly this, 16+
    years ago.
    
       -BPB
    
    University of Michigan AntiVirus Team Leader
    University of Michigan Data Recovery Team Leader
    PGP 2.6.2 key fingerprint:  0D A5 98 3C 91 DA E0 DD  9C 6D FA 8F 4D 34 95 ED
    
    
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