F-Secure Virus Descriptions : RP

NAME:	RP
ALIAS:	Rhubarb
TYPE:	Resident Stealth Boot sectors MBR
ORIGIN:	Romania

This is a stealth boot sector virus. Unlike most other boot sector viruses, RP does not decrease the total amount of DOS memory; instead it decreases the amount of free memory.

RP activates on the 17th of December. When the machine is booted on that date, the virus decrypts a message, switches the display to 40 column mode and displays the following text:

        RP wants to say hello!

After this, the virus overwrites part of the hard drive, making the machine unbootable.

The virus is buggy and often crashes when infecting a floppy. RP was reported to be in the wild in Hungary and Denmark in January 1996.

[Analysis: Mikko Hypponen, F-Secure]