F-Secure Virus Descriptions : SMEG

NAME:	SMEG
ALIAS:	Pathogen, Queeg
TYPE:	Resident COM/EXE-files
ORIGIN:	Great Britain
REPAIR:	Yes

There are two known members in this family, SMEG.Pathogen and SMEG.Queeg. They have been written using what the virus author, The Black Baron, calls the Simulated Metamorphic Encryption Generator (SMEG).

The viruses are highly polymorphic, meaning that each infection of the virus looks completely different to those seen before.

VARIANT: SMEG.Pathogen, SMEG.Queeg

Pathogen and Queeg are memory-resident, polymorphic infectors of COM and EXE files. If Pathogen triggers its payload (between the hours of 17:00 and 18:00 on a Monday evening), it will overwrite a part of the hard disk and display the following message:

 Your hard-disk is being corrupted, courtesy of PATHOGEN!
   Programmed in the U.K.  (Yes, NOT Bulgaria!) [C] The Black Baron 1993-4.
     Featuring SMEG v0.1:  Simulated Metamorphic Encryption Generator!
       'Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.....'
         Unfortunately some of your data won't!!!!!

The line and other messages contained within the viruses suggest the author is British and a fan of the cult science-fiction television comedy series, Red Dwarf.

The author of SMEG viruses, Black Baron aka Christopher Pile was sentenced for 18 months in prison on the 15th of November in 1995, based on the Computer Misuse Act of United Kingdom.

Note: If you find SMEG from Windows NT system file NTIO.SYS or from a file called MACROMIX.DLL with McAfee SCAN, you have a false alarm.