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                THE COMPUTER INCIDENT ADVISORY CAPABILITY

                                 CIAC

                        INFORMATION BULLETIN
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A New Macintosh Trojan Horse Threat--STEROID


June 7, 1990, 1100 PST                                     Number A-26        

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Name: Steroid trojan horse
Types: Only one known variant
Platform: Apple Macintosh computers
Damage: Erases all mounted disks
Symptoms: Can be identified by:
	TYPE: INIT
	CREATOR: QDAC
	Code Size: 1080
	Data Size: 267
	ID: 148
	Name: QuickDraw Accelerator
	File Name: "  Steroid" (First 2 characters are ASCII 1)
Detection/Eradication:  Examine system folder; if Steroid is there, 
save a copy and then drag the icon to the trash folder and empty trash.
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                         Critical Steroid Facts 
 
A Macintosh trojan horse called "Steroid" has been discovered.  The purported
purpose of Steroid is to make QuickDraw run faster on computers with 9 inch
screens.    Steroid is actually an INIT that contains malicious code to check
for the system date and to erase all mounted disks if this date is July 1, 1990
or afterwards.  (Note:  earlier reports indicated that June 6, 1990 is the
trigger date, but the sources of these reports now claim that July 1 is the
trigger date.)    
 
Steroid is a trojan horse, not a virus, and thus is limited in ability to
spread.  This trojan horse is a genuine threat; however, because it is being
posted to electronic bulletin boards,  and has already been downloaded by
unsuspecting users on the West Coast.  If you use a bulletin board, make sure
that you do not download any software claiming to improve QuickDraw performance
or related in any way to "Steroid."  Since "Steroid" is an INIT,  you would have
had to put it in your system folder to have this trojan horse.  If you are
unsure if you have installed "Steroid," look in your system folder for start-up
documents with the name "Steroid" or "Quickdraw Accelerator."  Another detection
method is to use RESEDIT; look for documents in the system folder with the
Creator: "QDAC," Type "INIT," and a code size of 1080 and a data size of 267.

If your Macintosh computer contains this INIT, please make a copy on a floppy
before you do anything else and send that copy to CIAC at your earliest
convenience.  Then drag the Steroid INIT to the trash icon and empty the trash.
If you unknowingly have used Steroid before July 1, 1990, no damage appears
possible at this time.  It is important, however, to determine if you have
shared Steroid with anyone else, and, if so, to notify them of the information
in this bulletin.  If you use Steroid on or after July 1, 1990, CIAC has been
advised that you can recover if you use the SUM II Disk Clinic tool to restore
erased files.  Do not use the machine until you have recovered the files using
SUM.  CIAC can provide more detailed procedures in this case.     

The following is an excerpt from a bulletin board posting by Apple:
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So far, we know that the code does the following:
 
OPERATIONS AT RESTART:
----------------------
 DATE & TIME CHECK (Loop)
 SYSENVIRONS CHECK
 GETS VOLUME INFORMATION (probably checking for HFS)
 GETS SOME ADRESSES (Toolbox traps)
 DOES SOME HFS DISPATCH OPERATIONS
 VOLUME IS REINITIALIZED to "Untitled"
 
INFORMATION:
------------
TYPE:      INIT
CREATOR:   qdac
CODE SIZE: 1080
DATA SIZE: 267
ID:        148
Name:      QuickDraw Accelerator
File Name: "  Steroid" (First 2 characters are ASCII 1)
 
WHAT TO DO:
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If your disk becomes erased, you can use SUM II Disk Clinic to recover the
deleted files.  We have tried this and it seems to work.  

IF YOU HAVE STEROID ON YOUR SYSTEM, DISABLE IT IMMEDIATELY.
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For additional information or assistance, please contact CIAC: 

	Eugene Schultz
	(415) 422-8193 or (FTS) 532-8193
	FAX:  (415) 294-5054, (415) 423-0913 or (415) 422-4294

You may also send e-mail to:

	ciac@tiger.llnl.gov
 
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