McAfee > Theat Center > Virus Detail Page

Overview

This is a virus detection. Viruses are programs that self-replicate recursively, meaning that infected systems spread the virus to other systems, which then propagate the virus further. While many viruses contain a destructive payload, it's quite common for viruses to do nothing more than spread from one system to another.

Aliases

• 1963

• 1963 OverWrite

• Necropolis

• Necropolis-1963

• Necropolis-b

• Necropolis.1963.C

• Necropolis.ow.1963

• V1963

Characteristics

1963 is a stealth, memory resident, file infecting virus. It infects .COM and .EXE files, including COMMAND.COM. It is related to the Dark Avenger family of viruses.

Upon infection, the virus becomes memory resident as a low system memory Terminate-and-Stay Resident (TSR) of 5,136 bytes. Interrupt 21 is hooked by the virus. This virus marks its TSR as "available", though the memory is in fact reserved.

After 1963 is memory resident, it infects .COM and .EXE files over 1,963 bytes in length as they are opened or executed.

It is not known what 1963 does besides replicate.

Additional Comments:
The 1963 virus was received in May, 1991. Its origin or original point of discovery is unknown. 1963 is a memory resident infector of .COM and .EXE files, including COMMAND.COM. This virus is a stealth virus, it hides its file length increase on infected files regardless of whether the virus is memory resident. It is related to the Dark Avenger family of viruses. The first time a program infected with the 1963 virus is executed, the virus will install itself memory resident as a low system memory TSR of 5,136 bytes. Interrupt 21 will be hooked by the virus. This virus will mark its TSR as "available", though the memory is in fact reserved. After 1963 is memory resident, it will infect .COM and .EXE programs over 1,963 bytes in length when they are opened or executed. The virus infects the programs by writing the original first 1,963 bytes of the program after the program's end of file mark, and then copying itself into the first 1,963 bytes of the file. (.EXE programs will have the first 2,475 bytes of the program altered, the difference is due to the .EXE header.) Infected programs do not change in length in the DOS disk directory. Execution of the DOS CHKDSK on infected systems will result in file allocation errors being detected. These errors will occur on each infected program regardless whether the virus is memory resident. 1963 is capable of disinfecting programs on the fly. As a result, an anti-viral unaware of this virus will be unable to locate it on infected programs when using CRC or checksumming techniques. Further, execution of an anti-viral program unaware of 1963 with the virus memory resident will result in all programs which are opened becoming infected. It is unknown what 1963 does besides replicate. Known variant(s) of 1963 are:

Symptoms

The virus infects the files by writing the original first 1,963 bytes of the file after the file's end of file mark, and then copies itself into the first 1,963 bytes of the file. (.EXE files have the first 2,475 bytes of the file altered, the difference is due to the .EXE header.) Infected files do not change in length in the DOS disk directory. This virus is a stealth virus, it hides the file length increase on infected files regardless of whether the virus is memory resident.

Execution of the DOS CHKDSK on infected systems results in the detection of file allocation errors. These errors occur on each infected file regardless of whether the virus is memory resident.

1963 is capable of disinfecting files on the fly. As a result, an anti-viral unaware of this virus is not able to locate it on infected files when using CRC or checksumming techniques. Further, execution of an anti-viral file unaware of 1963 with the virus memory resident results in all files which are opened becoming infected.

Method of Infection

The only way to infect a computer with a file infecting virus is to execute an infected file on the computer. The infected file may come from a multitude of sources including: floppy diskettes, downloads through an online service, network, etc. Once the infected file is executed, the virus may activate.

Removal

All Users :
Script,Batch,Macro and non memory-resident:
Use current engine and DAT files for detection and removal.

PE,Trojan,Internet Worm and memory resident :
Use specified engine and DAT files for detection. To remove, boot to MS-DOS mode or use a boot diskette and use the command line scanner:

Additional Windows ME/XP removal considerations

Users should not trust file icons, particularly when receiving files from others via P2P clients, IRC, email or other mediums where users can share files.

AVERT Recommended Updates :

* Office2000 Updates

* Malformed Word Document Could Enable Macro to Run Automatically (Information/Patch )

* scriptlet.typelib/Eyedog vulnerability patch

* Outlook as an email attachment security update

* Exchange 5.5 post SP3 Information Store Patch 5.5.2652.42 - this patch corrects detection issues with GroupShield

For a list of attachments blocked by the Outlook patch and a general FAQ, visit this link .
Additionally, Network Administrators can configure this update using an available tool - visit this link for more information .

It is very common for macro viruses to disable options within Office applications for example in Word, the macro protection warning commonly is disabled. After cleaning macro viruses, ensure that your previously set options are again enabled.

Variants

Variants

• 1963-B
• Necropolis-C
• Necropolis.C
• Necropolis.1963.A
• Necropolis.1963.B
• Necropolis.1963.D

All Information

Overview -

This is a virus detection. Viruses are programs that self-replicate recursively, meaning that infected systems spread the virus to other systems, which then propagate the virus further. While many viruses contain a destructive payload, it's quite common for viruses to do nothing more than spread from one system to another.

Aliases

• 1963

• 1963 OverWrite

• Necropolis

• Necropolis-1963

• Necropolis-b

• Necropolis.1963.C

• Necropolis.ow.1963

• V1963

Characteristics

Characteristics -

1963 is a stealth, memory resident, file infecting virus. It infects .COM and .EXE files, including COMMAND.COM. It is related to the Dark Avenger family of viruses.

Upon infection, the virus becomes memory resident as a low system memory Terminate-and-Stay Resident (TSR) of 5,136 bytes. Interrupt 21 is hooked by the virus. This virus marks its TSR as "available", though the memory is in fact reserved.

After 1963 is memory resident, it infects .COM and .EXE files over 1,963 bytes in length as they are opened or executed.

It is not known what 1963 does besides replicate.

Additional Comments:
The 1963 virus was received in May, 1991. Its origin or original point of discovery is unknown. 1963 is a memory resident infector of .COM and .EXE files, including COMMAND.COM. This virus is a stealth virus, it hides its file length increase on infected files regardless of whether the virus is memory resident. It is related to the Dark Avenger family of viruses. The first time a program infected with the 1963 virus is executed, the virus will install itself memory resident as a low system memory TSR of 5,136 bytes. Interrupt 21 will be hooked by the virus. This virus will mark its TSR as "available", though the memory is in fact reserved. After 1963 is memory resident, it will infect .COM and .EXE programs over 1,963 bytes in length when they are opened or executed. The virus infects the programs by writing the original first 1,963 bytes of the program after the program's end of file mark, and then copying itself into the first 1,963 bytes of the file. (.EXE programs will have the first 2,475 bytes of the program altered, the difference is due to the .EXE header.) Infected programs do not change in length in the DOS disk directory. Execution of the DOS CHKDSK on infected systems will result in file allocation errors being detected. These errors will occur on each infected program regardless whether the virus is memory resident. 1963 is capable of disinfecting programs on the fly. As a result, an anti-viral unaware of this virus will be unable to locate it on infected programs when using CRC or checksumming techniques. Further, execution of an anti-viral program unaware of 1963 with the virus memory resident will result in all programs which are opened becoming infected. It is unknown what 1963 does besides replicate. Known variant(s) of 1963 are:

Symptoms

Symptoms -

The virus infects the files by writing the original first 1,963 bytes of the file after the file's end of file mark, and then copies itself into the first 1,963 bytes of the file. (.EXE files have the first 2,475 bytes of the file altered, the difference is due to the .EXE header.) Infected files do not change in length in the DOS disk directory. This virus is a stealth virus, it hides the file length increase on infected files regardless of whether the virus is memory resident.

Execution of the DOS CHKDSK on infected systems results in the detection of file allocation errors. These errors occur on each infected file regardless of whether the virus is memory resident.

1963 is capable of disinfecting files on the fly. As a result, an anti-viral unaware of this virus is not able to locate it on infected files when using CRC or checksumming techniques. Further, execution of an anti-viral file unaware of 1963 with the virus memory resident results in all files which are opened becoming infected.

Method of Infection

Method of Infection -

The only way to infect a computer with a file infecting virus is to execute an infected file on the computer. The infected file may come from a multitude of sources including: floppy diskettes, downloads through an online service, network, etc. Once the infected file is executed, the virus may activate.

Removal -

Removal -

All Users :
Script,Batch,Macro and non memory-resident:
Use current engine and DAT files for detection and removal.

PE,Trojan,Internet Worm and memory resident :
Use specified engine and DAT files for detection. To remove, boot to MS-DOS mode or use a boot diskette and use the command line scanner:

Additional Windows ME/XP removal considerations

Users should not trust file icons, particularly when receiving files from others via P2P clients, IRC, email or other mediums where users can share files.

AVERT Recommended Updates :

* Office2000 Updates

* Malformed Word Document Could Enable Macro to Run Automatically (Information/Patch )

* scriptlet.typelib/Eyedog vulnerability patch

* Outlook as an email attachment security update

* Exchange 5.5 post SP3 Information Store Patch 5.5.2652.42 - this patch corrects detection issues with GroupShield

For a list of attachments blocked by the Outlook patch and a general FAQ, visit this link .
Additionally, Network Administrators can configure this update using an available tool - visit this link for more information .

It is very common for macro viruses to disable options within Office applications for example in Word, the macro protection warning commonly is disabled. After cleaning macro viruses, ensure that your previously set options are again enabled.

Variants

Variants -

• 1963-B
• Necropolis-C
• Necropolis.C
• Necropolis.1963.A
• Necropolis.1963.B
• Necropolis.1963.D