Re: <nettime> Penpal Greetings is a Hoax, not a virus

[adam kepecs <zeno {AT} cs.elte.hu>]

On Thu, 10 Apr 1997, Otto Stolz wrote:

> Facts are:
> - By merly reading an E-mail letter, no virus can be propagated, as
>   no additional program code is executed. Either, you had the virus already,
>   or you won't have it after reading. Period.
> - To attract a virus, or to suffer from a Troian Horse, you have to execute
>   some program code brought to you from external sources. In the context
>   of e-mail (and news), this code can only come via an ATTACHMENT.
>   In particular, MS-Word formatted texts may contain Word-Macro viruses;
>   if your MUA (or news-reader) is configured to launch Word and pass the
>   attachment to it, you may be in trouble.

Hello!
If you use your web browser as your mail program the above "facts"
may soon change (actually i think there already are exploits of this sort)

Another thing: IF there would such a virus, the code would certainly be
spread along with the so-called warning. Conclusion: don't forward
warnings.
Take care,

adam

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