I've received
a lot of warning messages about Christmas Tree greeting card (TREE.EXE)
that is spread over the Internet. We have several samples of this
greeting card called 'The Preacher's Wife'. All the samples are
1932577 bytes long but have different time stamp. The program
itself doesn't try to do anything destructive. It was compiled
with MacroMedia Director 5.0 and is freely available from several
ftp sites.
Here's an
example of a warning:
Hi everyone!
If you have received (from me or anyone) a Christmas tree that has sparkles
that you click to "dress" the tree, DELETE THIS FILE!!! We were just warned
that this executable file is set to go off on Dec. 26th with a VIRUS - so,
delete away!!!
Another warning looks
like this:
Recently we mailed out a communication regarding the mailing of
Non-Business related attachments. It has been brought to our
attention that one of these attachments, TREE.EXE, may contain
the CIH Virus. This virus is said to wipe the "C" drive clean
on Dec. 26th. It's a cute program where you decorate a Christmas
tree, but after running it, it will remain dormant until the 26th
when it will wipe out everything on your hard drive.
If you have this attachment in any of your mail messages, please
delete this attachment IMMEDIATELY.
DO NOT RUN TREE.EXE! DO NOT DETACH TREE.EXE! DO NOT FORWARD TREE.EXE!
As noted above the program (TREE.EXE) itself doesn't try to do anything
destructive, BUT the file can
be infected with CiH virus that erases hard disks and corrupts
Flash Bios on 26th days(depending on its version). Someone could
spread the infected copy over the Internet (purposely or simply
not being aware of infection). That is why it's a good idea
to check all incoming files for viruses.
I haven't received any TREE.EXE files infected with CiH virus,
but nevertheless I don't consider the above warnings to be hoaxes.
*********************************
List
of known hoaxes:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V X Y Z
Welcome to my hoax section if
you encounter a message about a virus please send to [email protected]
or call me on ICQ#22015420
I
do not spread hoaxes! these pages are simply to inform
other users that they are hoaxes. Please to not spread
hoaxes. Hoax warnings are typically scare alerts started
by malicious people - and passed on by innocent users
who think they are helping the community by spreading
the warning.
Do
not forward hoax messages. There have been cases where
e-mail systems have collapsed after dozens of users forwarded
a false alert to everybody in the company. Corporate users
can get rid of the hoax problem by simply setting a strict
company guideline: End users must not forward virus
alarms. Ever. If such message is received, end users could forward it to the IT department
but not to anyone else.
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