Summary

Fairz is an encrypted virus that infects COM and EXE files when they are accessed. It has code to display the following message when a specific file is executed:

  This is an [ illegal copy ] of KeyPress virus remover
  System Halted

Occasionally Fairz will corrupt files while infecting them. Data Fellows anti-virus products will detect such files as "Damaged Fairz-infected file". Such files will be deleted as they cannot be disinfected.

The virus also contains this text: "Eternal Fairz". These texts are not visible when the virus is examined.

[Analysis: Mikko Hypponen, F-Secure]