Summary

Kaos4 got distributed via a file that was posted in a message to the usenet newsgroup alt.binaries.pictures.erotica on the 24th of July, 1994.

The virus did spread very fast around the globe. Incidents were reported from at least USA, Germany, Austria, Norway and Finland.

Additional Details

Kaos4 is a simple virus by operation: it spreads only, when an infected file is executed. The virus infects COM and EXE files in the current directory and in the directories listed in PATH. It does not do anything besides spreading. Infected files grow by 697 bytes.

The virus contains the following text: "KAOS4 / K"hntark". K"hntark is an alias for a known virus writer in USA.

[Analysis: Mikko Hypponen, F-Secure]