F-Secure Virus Descriptions : NED

NAME:

NED

NuKE Encryption Device

NED, the first polymorphic generator from USA, appeared at approximately the same time as TPE. According to the generator's documentation, it was released in October, 1992. Nowhere Man is credited as being the author of this generator, but there have been suspicions that it is actually written by some other programmer. Nowhere Man is the author of NuKE's Virus Creation Laboratory, the VCL.

Unlike most other polymorphic generators, NED was distributed as source code. This, of course, makes it easier for other virus creators to modify the generator, but so far only a single version of NED has been found. The generator's documentation expressly forbids its distribution outside NuKE itself, but it has obviously been in wide distribution.

NED version 0.90B takes up 1355 bytes. It is known to have been linked to two different viruses.