Re: Re[2]: Virus message - HOAX

[David Jones/KSBEISD <David_Jones/KSBEISD -dot- KSBEISD -at- DATAHUB -dot- COM>]

But the chance of those DOS-specific ANSI Escape sequences surviving the
text-only nature of an e-mail note seems pretty slim to me ... The second
option is possible, but I *never* enable autoopen helpers for my mail reader.
But then, maybe, I'm paranoid. BTW, the second option strikes me as a good
reason to *not* use Word as a mail reader!

David Jones, Technical Writer
David_Jones/KSBEISD -dot- KSBEISD -at- Datahub -dot- com
Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate

DISCLAIMER:
"I do not speak for my employer, my computer, or any other living thing."

>      If anyone can explain to me how a virus can do *anything* from
      the *text* of an email message (and not an executable attachment)
      then I might reconsider.

It depends upon the computer and the configuration of the mail reader, Matt.
On DOS machines, if you have the ANSI.sys driver loaded then it's possible
for a text message to include ANSI sequences which redefines a key to, say,
"Format c:" for example. Since they're ANSI escape sequences, you'll not see
them on screen.

If the mail reader is configured to open long messages with your word
processor, and your word processor supports auto-execute macros (like Word,
for example) then you could get infected from reading a message.<

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