-=> Quoting The Visionary to Herbert Graf <=-
-=> FidoMail to 1:163/215, please.-=<
hg> Ya, and they only work when the bootsector is read and executed,
hg> and that only happens if you stick in the disk before turning on
hg> the computer and booting from that disk, aside from that the
hg> virus can't do anything. 
TV> 100% INcorrect.
No, he isn't.
tv> You read the FAT and the boot sector when you read data from the
tv> disk. The computer has to be able to tell if it's a 3«" disk
tv> formatted to 720k or the same disk formatted to 1.44mb. This is
tv> all stored on the MBR and in the FAT table. 
1) a floppy doesn't have an "MBR".
2) the media descriptor is also 1 byte at offset 15 in the boot
record (BIOS parameter block).
tv> You can have a clean system powered on, insert a floppy, and then
tv> just type 'dir a:' and infect your system (well, load the virus
tv> into memory, which it can then infect from). 
And how, pray tell, does that stuff loaded in the "read" buffer get
executed to "infect from?"
There is a _lot_ of misinformation in the echo, and I fear it is
about to get _worse_.
TTFN. Rick.
Ottawa, ON 23 Dec 20:29 
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