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I have always been fascinated by computer viruses/malwares which is my primary motivation to teach myself system programming. I'm wondering if there is any val

I have always been fascinated by computer viruses/malwares which is my primary motivation to teach myself system programming. I'm wondering if there is any value to drill into pre-Win2000 era viruses? I heard that subsequent advances in computer security made all of those exploitations obsolete. I have on my HD the "Little Black Book of Computer Viruses" which focuses on DOS viruses. I don't have any DOS programming experience so barely read it, but reading a book that openly teaches one how to write a virus excites me a lot.

orionblastar 3y ago
Dark Avenger came in a kit to mutate and encrypt it. Pirate BBSes had copies of it. Apple BBS in the college I attended used a flaw in ZIP to infect the IBM PC BBS abd steal passwords. I remember handing out McAffee anti-virus scanner disks for DOS to the students as I worked in the PC lab.
- hnthrowaway0315 3y ago
  Yeah I remember back in high school when I did not own a computer and did not know anything about computer programming except for FOXBASE which was taught in school, one of my friends handed me a book about computer viruses which talked about Dark Avenger's mutation engine and the whole thing blew my mind off. That was probably the smartest thing I ever heard then. I wonder where he went eventually. With his skills he could probably find employment in any position. I hope he lurks on this place too! I was too young for the BBS era (or rather, I did not own a computer to join the era). I guess it is similar somehow to IRC and Discord? I know people could play MUDs on BBS and share files on it. Fun time. I'm glad you managed to enjoy that era.
  - orionblastar 3y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronet Synchronet is a BBS that can use telnet instead of MODEMS. You use this terminal program here: http://www.syncterm.net/ http://www.syncterm.net/ This is the BBS software: http://www.synchro.net/ http://www.synchro.net/ This is a BBS List: http://www.synchro.net/sbbslist.html http://www.synchro.net/sbbslist.html Yeah it is kind of like Discord or IRC for chats, but it is also like Hacker News for message bases in that you read one post at a time. Dark Avenger copied the SYSOP login information to a GIF file, which the hacker downloads and logs in as the SYSOP to steal the password list or do anything. The Apple BBS people in the Apple lab did not have permission from the dean to run a BBS and the PC Lab had permission to run a BBS. So the Apple lab got the Dark Avenger virus to infect the PC BBS in WWIV by using a PKZIP exploit to replace the BBS.EXE file with an infected one. I only heard about it later when a friend had one of the Apple people confess to her that he used the Dark Avenger virus on the PC BBS. There is a list of BBS archives, mostly DOS and OS/2 stuff here: http://archives.thebbs.org/ra102a.htm http://archives.thebbs.org/ra102a.htm I heard of a Python library that lets you write BBS Doors/Games in Python but can't remember the name of it. Anyway I wanted to make a few BBS Doors using the Python library. Usually it is COM IO using FOSSIL drivers and the like. But there doesn't seem to be that much of a market for it. BBSing is undead, they still exist in telnet form, but the dial-up MODEM experience is almost gone. Cheers!
  - hammyhavoc 3y ago
    Conceptually similar, but one thing most people miss is that the demographics of people were quite different, meaning much more limited. They skewed white, male, hetero, reasonably well-off, and if you were on a BBS or IRC channel, there's not an unlikelihood that you would have a huge amount in common as the barrier of admission was considerably higher, and to even want to be on there or end up on there meant you probably liked x and felt y just like your peers did. Who you were likely to interact with informed what you were likely to be exposed to in terms of ideas. I much prefer the modern web as there's a greater chance of getting new or different ideas coming down the pipe, even if that means a greater chance for conflict. There were still trolls and flame wars, but the scale was far smaller as communities were smaller, versus now with Twitter where you can become the "main character" for a considerable number of people temporarily.

orionblastar 3y ago

Dark Avenger came in a kit to mutate and encrypt it. Pirate BBSes had copies of it. Apple BBS in the college I attended used a flaw in ZIP to infect the IBM PC BBS abd steal passwords. I remember handing out McAffee anti-virus scanner disks for DOS to the students as I worked in the PC lab.

hnthrowaway0315 3y ago
Yeah I remember back in high school when I did not own a computer and did not know anything about computer programming except for FOXBASE which was taught in school, one of my friends handed me a book about computer viruses which talked about Dark Avenger's mutation engine and the whole thing blew my mind off. That was probably the smartest thing I ever heard then. I wonder where he went eventually. With his skills he could probably find employment in any position. I hope he lurks on this place too! I was too young for the BBS era (or rather, I did not own a computer to join the era). I guess it is similar somehow to IRC and Discord? I know people could play MUDs on BBS and share files on it. Fun time. I'm glad you managed to enjoy that era.
- orionblastar 3y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronet Synchronet is a BBS that can use telnet instead of MODEMS. You use this terminal program here: http://www.syncterm.net/ http://www.syncterm.net/ This is the BBS software: http://www.synchro.net/ http://www.synchro.net/ This is a BBS List: http://www.synchro.net/sbbslist.html http://www.synchro.net/sbbslist.html Yeah it is kind of like Discord or IRC for chats, but it is also like Hacker News for message bases in that you read one post at a time. Dark Avenger copied the SYSOP login information to a GIF file, which the hacker downloads and logs in as the SYSOP to steal the password list or do anything. The Apple BBS people in the Apple lab did not have permission from the dean to run a BBS and the PC Lab had permission to run a BBS. So the Apple lab got the Dark Avenger virus to infect the PC BBS in WWIV by using a PKZIP exploit to replace the BBS.EXE file with an infected one. I only heard about it later when a friend had one of the Apple people confess to her that he used the Dark Avenger virus on the PC BBS. There is a list of BBS archives, mostly DOS and OS/2 stuff here: http://archives.thebbs.org/ra102a.htm http://archives.thebbs.org/ra102a.htm I heard of a Python library that lets you write BBS Doors/Games in Python but can't remember the name of it. Anyway I wanted to make a few BBS Doors using the Python library. Usually it is COM IO using FOSSIL drivers and the like. But there doesn't seem to be that much of a market for it. BBSing is undead, they still exist in telnet form, but the dial-up MODEM experience is almost gone. Cheers!
- hammyhavoc 3y ago
  Conceptually similar, but one thing most people miss is that the demographics of people were quite different, meaning much more limited. They skewed white, male, hetero, reasonably well-off, and if you were on a BBS or IRC channel, there's not an unlikelihood that you would have a huge amount in common as the barrier of admission was considerably higher, and to even want to be on there or end up on there meant you probably liked x and felt y just like your peers did. Who you were likely to interact with informed what you were likely to be exposed to in terms of ideas. I much prefer the modern web as there's a greater chance of getting new or different ideas coming down the pipe, even if that means a greater chance for conflict. There were still trolls and flame wars, but the scale was far smaller as communities were smaller, versus now with Twitter where you can become the "main character" for a considerable number of people temporarily.