Pieck

Summary

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Pieck has some similarities to the Tequila virus. It's a multipartite virus which infects the MBR when an infected file is run. After next boot, the virus goes resident and infects EXE files when they are executed or accessed. However, EXE files are infected in floppy drives only. If infected EXE files are accessed on hard drives, the virus will disinfect them!

Removal

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Automatic action

Once detected, the F-Secure security product will automatically disinfect the suspect file by either deleting it or renaming it.

More

More information on scanning and removal options available in your F-Secure product can be found in the Help Center.

You may also refer to the Knowledge Base on the F-Secure Community site for more information.

Contact Support

For further assistance, F-Secure customers can request support online via the Request support or the Chat forms on our Home - Global site.

Technical Details

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Pieck is a stealth virus, so changes made to MBR and EXE files are not visible as long as the virus is resident.

Pieck activates on third of March, every year. At this date, it decrypt and display this message:

  Podaj haslo ?  

Which means "Password?". The correct password is 'PIECK'. If an incorrect answer is given, the virus displays 'Blad!' (which means 'Bad!') and makes the machine unbootable. Correct password is greeted with a new message:

Pozdrowienia dla wynchowankow Pieck'a.  

('Greetings to "wychowankow" Pieck').

Pieck was known to be in the wild in Eastern Europe in 1995 and in Germany in early 1996.

Variant:Pieck.4444 (Kaczor)

If the word "kaczor" is typed on the keyboard of an infected machine, the virus disinfects the MBR and displays this text:

Zrobione.  

If the word "test" is written, the virus displays these texts:

Wersja         Kodowanie         Licznik HD  

Otherwise this variant is similar to Pieck.2016 but activates by shaking the screen rapidly causing serious screen flicker on every 3rd of March. It also has some problems infecting files on 3.5" floppies.

Pieck.4444 is known to be in the wild internationally.

Technical Details:Peter Szor, F-Secure, 1996