This virus stays resident in memory and infects all executed COM and EXE files. Virus is encrypted with a simple 8-bit key. Avalanche uses 386-specific instructions and will crash on a 286 or lower.
Avalanche is a stealth virus, hiding itself from infected files if it is resident in memory. Boot clean before disinfecting.
Avalanche contains the following text:
AVALANCHE/Germany '94...Metal Junkie greets Neurobasher
It will delete the following antivirus programs when they are executed: F-PROT, TBAV, SCAN, MSAV, CPAV, TBMEM, TBFILE, TBSCAN and TBDRIVER.
This virus was reported to be in the wild in USA in March 1996.
There is another 2818 byte variant.