From: bontchev@fbihh.informatik.uni-hamburg.de (Vesselin Bontchev)
Subject: PKZ204C.EXE IS *NOT* INFECTED!!!
Reply-To: bontchev@fbihh.informatik.uni-hamburg.de
Organization: Virus Test Center, University of Hamburg
Date:  5 Jan 93 21:44:08 GMT

Hello, everybody!

A kind soul hellped me to get a copy of the much controversial file
PKZ204C.EXE. This file is NOT on wuarchive, please stop trying. You
are already exceeding the maximal number of simultaneous anonymous
users that wuarchive is able to handle.

I analyzed the file carefully. I am a world-wide known computer virus
expert, specialized in MS-DOS viruses, so I know what I am talking
about. The executable mentioned above DOES *NOT* CONTAIN ANY VIRUSES!
Please, stop spreading rumors. It is a self-extractable archive, which
is further compressed with PKLite 1.20 (unless the new ZIP2EXE puts an
already PKLited extractor automatically).

The archive indeed contains version 2.04c of PKZIP. I do not know
whether this version is real, but I guarantee that it is -not- a hack
of PKZIP 1.93 or Info-ZIP. For more information, contact PKWare. My
personal oppinion is that the new version is real.

NONE OF THE EXECUTABLES IN THE ARCHIVE IS INFECTED!

The archive can be let to self-extract, but you can also unpack it
with PKUNZIP 1.93 or unzip 5.0. If you unpack it with PKUNZIP 1.93, it
reports -AV codes (did you know that the alpha version supports
authentication?) but at the end it says that the archive fails the
authentication check. Obviously, the authentication in 2.04c is
different from that in 1.93, because PKUNZIP 2.04c says that the
archive PKZ204C.EXE -does- have a correct authentication mark.

F-Prot 2.06a, when run in heuristic scan mode, reports that the files
PKZ204C.EXE, PKUNZIP.EXE, PKZIPFIX.EXE and ZIPFIX.EXE are "suspicious,
because they contain a self-modifying program, which may indicate a
self-encrypting virus or just unusual code". This is PERFECTLY NORMAL,
because all those EXE files are compressed with PKLite 1.20 and they
-do- contain a self-modifying (in memory) program - the decompressor
that unpacks them in memory. People who do not understand the
capabilities and the limitations of heuristic scanning are STRONGLY
advised not to use it and not to spread rumors.

No other scanner of those that I tried (about a dozen) reported
anything else. I finally analyzed the files manually with a debugger
AND THEY DO NOT CONTAIN ANY VIRUSES, LET ALONE MALTESE AMOEBA.

On the top of that EVEN A RECENT VERSION OF NORTON ANTI-VIRUS *DOES
NOT* FIND *ANY* VIRUSES IN *ANY* OF THE EXECUTABLES. By "recent
version" I mean NAV 2.1 with signature updates of December. I am
afraid that the person who posted the initial alert is using an out-of
date scanner.

Again, I am stating with my full authority that NONE OF THE
EXECUTABLES IS INFECTED BY ANY VIRUS.

At last, just to be sure that we are speaking about one and the same
thing, here are the checksums obtained with McAfee's program VALIDATE
on the archive I checked. Please, don't pay attention to the date of
last modification, because it got destroyed during the download.

          File Name:  PKZ204C.EXE
               Size:  188,818
               Date:  1-5-1993
File Authentication:
     Check Method 1 - 0DC8
     Check Method 2 - 045E

Well, that's all. The moderator of wuarchive is welcome to put
PKZ204C.EXE back on-line. If anybody has any other questions, feel
free to ask. Just have in mind that I probably won't be able to answer
before tomorrow, because it is almost midnight here, I am still in the
office and my last bus to home leaves after half an hour... :-)

Regards,
Vesselin
-- 
Vesselin Vladimirov Bontchev          Virus Test Center, University of Hamburg
Tel.:+49-40-54715-224, Fax: +49-40-54715-226      Fachbereich Informatik - AGN
< PGP 2.1 public key available on request. > Vogt-Koelln-Strasse 30, rm. 107 C
e-mail: bontchev@fbihh.informatik.uni-hamburg.de    D-2000 Hamburg 54, Germany