F-Secure Virus Descriptions : Virdem

This virus was written in 1986, which makes it one of the oldest viruses in existence. It was written by R. Burger, the author of "Computer Viruses: A High-Tech Disease". It is not a threat in unmodified form, as the virus makes it quite clear that the program has been infected. Virdem overwrites the first part of the program and appends the original code to the end of the file. Two similar variants of this virus are known - one with all the text strings in German, but the other is an English language version.

VARIANT:

Killer

This variant is of the same length as the original, but the text messages have been changed.

VARIANT:

Virdem 792, Virdem 824

Two shorter variants, possibly created by removing the text messages, or they might be earlier variants of the virus.