Terminator

Upon infection, the Terminator virus becomes memory resident as a low system memory Terminate-and-Stay Resident (TSR) of 1,104 bytes. Interrupts 21, 22, and 24 are hooked.

Once the Terminator virus is memory resident, it infects .COM files, including COMMAND.COM, as they are executed.

Additional Comments:
The Terminator virus was submitted in April, 1992. Its origin is unknown. Terminator is a memory resident infector of .COM programs, including COMMAND.COM. The first time a program infected with the Terminator virus is executed, the Terminator virus will install itself memory resident as a low system memory TSR of 1,104 bytes. Interrupts 21, 22, and 24 will be hooked. Once the Terminator virus is memory resident, it will infect .COM programs, including COMMAND.COM, when they are executed. Programs infected with the Terminator virus will have a file length increase of 526 bytes with the virus being located at the end of the program. The file's date and time in the DOS disk directory listing will have been updated to the system date and time when infection occurred. Systems infected with the Terminator virus may notice that when the user attempts to execute .COM programs from a write-protected diskette, a write-protect error will occur.

Users of infected systems may notice that when a .COM file is executed from a write-protected diskette, a write-protect error occurs.

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.

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.