============================================================================ VIRUSZ III HISTORY ============================================================================ TODO Until final release version 1.00: - Implement file and sector scanning inside all types of disk- and filearchives that xadmaster.library supports. - Add device-based sector scanning. - Add useful commands to ARexx port. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry, I have been a bit lazy during the last weeks, but summertime is not necessarily the best Amiga-time :-) 0.9c Changes/Additions since 0.9b: - Added new snapshots sent by Harry Sintonen, Gunnar Andersson, Dieter Klisch, Armin Pigulla, Dirk Stöcker, Marko Raina, Maurizio and AmiS. Thanks guys! - Implemented support for NOUNCRUNCHSIZE archives to file check. The lengths of the destination files will now be calculated before extracting. - Implemented support for crypted archives to file check. VirusZ will ask for the password once and use it with the whole archive. Only if this one becomes wrong, a new one will be requested. - Added 'Snapshot' function for tc_Switch, tc_Launch and pr_PktWait fields after AmiS reported some software that uses these fields. To AmiS: Please send me your snapshots now! 0.9b Changes/Additions since 0.9a: - Fixed calculation code for ROM size and location. Now uses the official method stated in the Amiga Guru Book. Thanks to Michel Bagmeijer and Jan Erik Olausen for the bug report. - Added new snapshots sent by Harry Sintonen, Mark Savage and Klaus-Peter Simon. Thanks guys. - Added support for SegTracker to vector check. This makes it much easier to identify the program that causes a non-standard vector. Thanks to Dirk Stöcker for the idea. - Finally added recognition for all vector changes caused by OS 3.9 BoingBag 2. If you still find some unknown (maybe because you have a different cpu), please snapshot and send them. - Fixed several bugs in the 'Remove' functions of vector check: (a) all of them didn't update the KickChkSum field :-( (b) an empty KickMemList (after removing all entries one by one) will be removed completely now; (c) RomTags will be unlinked from the KickTagList in a much more intelligent manner; Thanks to Mikolaj Calusinski for his suggestions on this topic. - Added support for RemAPollo memory area to vector check and memory monitor. Once again thanks to Mikolaj Calusinski for informations about his program. - Added SegTracker support to memory monitor. Idea by Dirk Stöcker. - The memory monitor now gives you a warning if you want to display a memory area that is not in the system's list; then it switches to ExecBase pointer instead (as it did before). - Fixed MuForce hit 'implemented' in v0.9a shutdown code. Thanks to Mikolaj Calusinski and Jan Erik Olausen for their reports. - Re-added scanning inside archives to file check. Currently this function works in the same manner as it did until version 0.99, i.e. not all types of archives can be scanned. Full support of all xadmaster.library features will come with the next releases. 0.9a Changes/Additions since 0.99: - Totally redesigned the file check. Now all selected files/dirs are always scanned without user interaction (exception: encoded files) and just the important results get listed. These can be reviewed at any time to finally decide what to do with malicious files. The new concept has the following advantages: (a) it's much faster (my SYS: partition gets scanned in 2:16 min, the old scanner needed 9:20 min; that's over 4 times faster!); (b) the Job Monitor (that's the name of the new check-window) is fully prepared for archive and sector checking, all this will happen in just one window (NOT IMPLEMENTED YET); (c) less information that's not interesting for the average user, just important things get reported now (if you want to analyse the files on your harddisk, just use a tool like CheckX!); (d) even disinfects damaged or encoded files as far as possible; (e) looks much better :-) - Added a whole bunch of perfectly commented snapshots sent by Todd A. Oberly. Thanks a lot! - Added more snapshots sent by Michel Bagmeijer and Ian Chapman. Again thanks! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOME WORDS ABOUT RELEASE 0.99: This one is mostly a 'cosmetic' update that fixes some problems/minor bugs and prevents some vector trouble as a lot of snapshots have been added. At the moment I'm already working on a totally new concept for file/sector checking, but I cannot promise how long it will take to finish that stuff. That's why I decided to release this update right now. 0.99 Changes/Additions since 0.98: - Improved window calculation code to avoid rendering bugs when you have installed sysihack-like programs. Thanks to Harry Sintonen for the bug report and screenshot. - Splitted the single 'About' request in a 'Technical Info' request and a new 'About' request and added some more information to them. - Fixed bug: 72 bytes of memory disappeared during every program startup, this seems to be a problem with special CreateNewProc() tags. After two nights of debugging I still couldn't locate the bug exactly, so I did some workaround instead, now there are at least no more memory losses. - Added the first vector snapshots sent by David Oakes, Ian Chapman, Fulvio Peruggi and Harry Sintonen. Thanks guys! - Fixed minor rendering problem with VirusZ's main window. This one only appeared if you have modified the top_border size with tools like MCP. Thanks to Luca Longone for the report/screenshot and sorry for my angry email :-) - Added full support for NSD-64-bit devices. Now the bootblocks of partitions located higher than the old 4GB-border will finally be accessed correctly. - Improved disassembler output in the bootblock lab. The first three longwords now always get displayed as 'dc.l' lines and disassembly starts at offset $000c, the real entry point of a bootblock. This avoids strange interpretations of the bootblock's checksum and the two other fields. - Added some more vector snapshots sent by Dariusz Krzempek. Thanks! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAST MINUTE BUG REPORT: I received bug reports saying that VirusZ crashes immediately at startup. These crashes only happen when both disassembler.library and mmu.library are installed in your 'libs:' drawer, but mmu.library setup is not correct. In those cases, either set up your mmu.library environment correctly (read the manuals), or delete/rename mmu.library, so that disassembler.library cannot find it at startup. Thanks to Harry Sintonen for finding this 'bug' and its solution. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0.98 Changes/Additions since 0.97: - Fixed bug in vector check kickmem brain that caused all patches to be recognized as 'AmigaOS ROM Update'. Sorry for that! - Designed a new display format for the vector check. This one looks better and is more informative than the old one. - Added brain for kicktags to the vector check. This one currently only recognizes 'AmigaOS ROM Update' and 'ramdrive.device'. - Added the 'Snapshot' function to the vector check (as I promised). Now you can snapshot every unknown patch that causes alerts on your Amiga and send me the results. This makes it possible for me to even add patches that I cannot install on my computer. Read the manual for detailed information! - Added recognition for ppc.library v46.37 to the vector check. Thanks to Jean-Michel Chapron for the handmade snapshots. - Added disassembler mode to Memory Monitor. This should help experienced users/programmers to analyse unknown vector patches. 0.97 Changes/Additions since 0.96: - Fixed bugs in window calculation code that caused the resizeable windows (Vector Check, File Check) to look ugly or to not open up at all. Thanks to Crown/Cryptoburners, DMX, Paracels/Placebo, Jan Andersen and Mad Roger for the bug reports... - Moved size-gadget in resizeable windows from the right border to the bottom border (looks much nicer and takes less space on small screens) and re-fixed width of these windows. - Re-added support for ALL disk-based devices to Bootblock Lab on special request from Mikolaj Calusinski. Are you happy now? :-) - Added disassembler mode to the Bootblock Lab. This should help experienced users/programmers to analyse unknown bootblocks. Note: This feature requires 'disassembler.library' v40.x by Thomas Richter, you'll find it in Aminet... - Made Bootblock Lab window resizeable as the disassembler output becomes quite big sometimes. - Changed the file format for saving window positions. Sorry, but if you already had arranged your windows individually, you will have to position them all again and save the prefs afterwards. - Started adding Sector Check (at least the device selector, the real check is not implemented yet, sorry for that :-( - Added recognition for mmu.library patches to Vector Check and fixed some smaller problems. - Finally wrote at least a short documentation for VirusZ III. 0.96 Changes/Additions since 0.95ß: - Once again written by Georg Hörmann, as Dirk Stöcker doesn't have any time. No longer beta version, because all features are working well, missing ones are no reason for a beta release. - Fixed bug in vector check that appeared with xvs.library 33.37. No longer uses private stuff from inside the library. - Fixed bug in vector check startup code invented by Dirk's updates. No longer uses uninitialized gadget pointers. - Added 'Show...' function for 'Data Viruses' from xvs.library. - Rearranged 'File Check Preferences' back to just one window after Dirk replaced the old archive stuff with XAD. - Added missing 'ROM Update' memlist entries to the brain. But: There still exists one entry that cannot be added because of missing static data. - Added recognition for MuForce and MuGuardianAngel patches. 0.95ß Changes/Additions since 0.94ß: - Now detects and hides the MemList entries of known patches (eg. ROM Update). - Added some unknown patches. 0.94ß Changes/Additions since 0.93aß: - Now no longer made by Georg Hörmann, but made by Dirk Stöcker. - Added lots of new patches running on my system. - Removed unfinished old style archiver support. - Added short report format (like in VirusZ II). - Bug fixes. - Added file archiver support using xadmaster.library. NOTE: Registered VirusZ users can get special conditions when registering xadmaster.library. Contact me. - Fixed preferences storage. - Added my PGP signature to all the important files. - Fixed VirusZ II Docs. - Removed VirusZ II history stuff (It is no longer developed!). - Added resize feature to some windows. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This version still causes PatchWork hits in the startup-code while scanning for an already running VirusZ_III copy. This may be fixed in a later release and doesn't influence the performance of VirusZ. 0.93aß Changes/Additions since 0.93ß: - Argh! Fixed tiny little bug that made 0.93ß crash on all Amigas that don't have archiver prefs saved in 'ENV:VirusZ_III'. Thanks to Jan Andersen and Dirk Stöcker for the reports. - Memory Monitor now uses a pointer to ExecBase as default address to prevent Enforcer hits when 'Chip Start Address = 0' option is activated. Manually forced read accesses to locations $0 to $ff still cause Enforcer hits, but that is intended. That's why you can switch off the above mentioned option :-) Thanks to Dirk Stöcker for the report and idea. - Fixed unsafe calls to FindTask() in 'Fake SnoopDos' code. Fixed shutdown code for timer port. Thanks to Dirk Stöcker again for the reports and for sending PatchWork (written by Richard Körber), a very useful debug utility. - Added recognition for patches caused by PoolMem and PatchWork. Thanks again to Dirk for sending that stuff. 0.93ß Changes/Additions since 0.92ß: - Finally added a new file check that works asynchronously. Right now it doesn't support archives and doesn't create a report, but all other features of VZ II file check have been implemented. - Certainly added preferences windows for file check. Some features are not implemented yet, just ignore those settings. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oh, oh, it's September already, and nothing great happened to VirusZ III. This really is a shame, but I was on a holiday trip in August after my final exams... 0.92ß Changes/Additions since 0.91ß: - Added some system patches to vector check that disturbed me on my machine;-) - Changed VirusZ status to FREEWARE until I will have more time to develop new features or at least finish VirusZ III. Why should you pay money for an incomplete program? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From March to August '98 I'm once again just at home for the week-ends. This will definitely delay further development, but I'm going to try my best to finish the work I've started as soon as possible. 0.91ß Changes/Additions since 0.90ß: - Added xvs.library version string to About request. Idea by Jan Andersen. - Fixed Disk-Validator check (path was DFx::L/Disk-Validator), thanks to Dirk Stöcker for the report. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please understand that I didn't have the time to write a documentation for VirusZ III until now, just try the features yourself, most things are quite similar to VirusZ II. Best thing would be to run VirusZ III permanently in the background and call VirusZ II if you want to check files/sectors. Disable all background checking in VirusZ II 1.42/1.43 then to avoid double testing. Sorry, but huge programs, like VirusZ became over the years, cannot be rewritten in just a few days. 0.90ß Changes/Additions since VirusZ II 1.42a: - Argh, just after releasing the fixed version, I found another bug in the Vector Check code. But now it's fully fixed. - Added option to Memory Monitor to skip the low memory region in Chip-Ram to prevent Enforcer hits. - Fixed little bug in Memory Monitor, the scroll functions didn't roll over the end of a region properly. - Changed whole signal/message handling to asynchronous style. The second (background) process is obsolete and has been removed. Even reqtools requesters are asynchronous now, everything runs at the same time and nothing blocks out VirusZ. Functionality is now just limited by the number of free task signals as each window needs at least one. - Rewritten whole startup code, all initialization routines and module setups for proper support of all new features. - Removed File Check and Sector Check. These must be rewritten first to be able to support async design. - Totally rewritten Bootblock Lab. The brainfile is compatible to VirusZ II but is stored by default in 'S:' now. - Totally new and safe device scanner: Only disk-based devices will be recognized. This should prevent complications with some odd harddisks, cd-roms etc. - Added new preferences. The preferences format changed and is no longer compatible with VirusZ II as many things became obsolete. - All settings are stored in ENV:VirusZ_III subdirectory now, as there will be created several files. - Preferences are kind of interactive now, every change is used immediately. There's no more need for Use/Cancel buttons. - VirusZ remembers all window positions now. After a restart all windows will appear at their old positions. This only works if centering is disabled (in Misc Prefs)! - Added a few new patches to the vector check. Thanks to all the guys who sent them. - Added new viruses to xvs.library: 'Death To Maxs' 1-4 trojans. Thanks to Jan Andersen for sending them. - Re-added 'Hide Known Patches' option to Vector Check as this is really useful if you have lots of patches in your system. - Added new feature to Vector Check: If VirusZ detects some new unknown vectors, the Vector Check will mark them '--> CHANGED SINCE LAST CHECK' when they are first reported. This comment will then change to '--> SUSPICIOUS' as usual after a refresh. This may help you at determining which program causes which changes. Idea by Ramiro Garcia and others. - Removed detection for Sinmut bootvirus. This actually isn't a virus, but some intro bootblock. - Added/improved ARexx scripts CheckFiles.vzrx and CheckDir.vzrx. CheckFiles supports multiple filenames as arguments and CheckDir reports which drawer has been checked now. Thanks to Ramiro Garcia for developping the improvements. This history entry is just a rough overview of what happened in the last few weeks. I sat in front of my machine almost every evening, my girlfriend is getting angry and other hobbies (even television) are canceled. There were several moments when another huge problem appeared that I didn't believe in myself any longer and thought about cancelling all the work, but until now, I nevertheless managed to solve all the problems (asynchronous layout is really tricky ;-) There is still a lot of work to come, as I'm planning new features for the File Check and other parts of VirusZ III, but I really hope that some day I can say: It's done!