Can a Virus Infect the BIOS?

Can a Virus Infect the BIOS?
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Subject Author Date
Can a Virus Infect the BIOS? Nancy 06-15-2006
Posted by Nancy on June 15, 2006, 3:05 am
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I'm not even sure if my PC has a virus now.
It started out with sudden rebooting.
My PC is unable to boot up at all into Windows now.
I have Avast anti virus installed and auto updates enabled and
installed.
Also did a full anti-virus scan.

There was a big yellow question mark in the Device Mngr list
pertaining to the USB bus so I disabled it.
I also disabled it in the BIOS.

Since then, when booting up, I get to the safe mode menu and select
safe mode. The screen just hangs and nothing happens.

I am going to put a new hard drive in but was wondering.....
If the PC was infected with a virus, could my new hard drive get
infected from the BIOS?

Thank you.

Nancy







Posted by Robert Baer on June 15, 2006, 3:37 am
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Nancy wrote:

> I'm not even sure if my PC has a virus now.
> It started out with sudden rebooting.
> My PC is unable to boot up at all into Windows now.
> I have Avast anti virus installed and auto updates enabled and
> installed.
> Also did a full anti-virus scan.
>
> There was a big yellow question mark in the Device Mngr list
> pertaining to the USB bus so I disabled it.
> I also disabled it in the BIOS.
>
> Since then, when booting up, I get to the safe mode menu and select
> safe mode. The screen just hangs and nothing happens.
>
> I am going to put a new hard drive in but was wondering.....
> If the PC was infected with a virus, could my new hard drive get
> infected from the BIOS?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Nancy
>
>
>
>
>
>
It is possible, but i understand that boot viri are very rare these daze.

Posted by Art on June 15, 2006, 6:22 am
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On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 07:37:31 GMT, Robert Baer


>> I am going to put a new hard drive in but was wondering.....
>> If the PC was infected with a virus, could my new hard drive get
>> infected from the BIOS?

>>
> It is possible, but i understand that boot viri are very rare these daze.

You're confused. Boot viruses affect sectors on hard drives, not the
BIOS.

Art
http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg

Posted by Robert Baer on June 15, 2006, 5:58 pm
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Art wrote:

> On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 07:37:31 GMT, Robert Baer
>
>
>
>>>I am going to put a new hard drive in but was wondering.....
>>>If the PC was infected with a virus, could my new hard drive get
>>>infected from the BIOS?
>
>
>> It is possible, but i understand that boot viri are very rare these daze.
>
>
> You're confused. Boot viruses affect sectors on hard drives, not the
> BIOS.
>
> Art
> http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg
No; a "good" BIOS virus will write one on the HD, so that if the BIOS
was somehow "fixed", then the boot virus will rewrite the BIOS copy.
Just like some virii hide a copy in the registry garbage pile.
Three components: the running program, the HD file(s), and the
registry entry/entries.
Delete any part and it will shortly pop back.
Almost as bad as the chicken and egg "problem".


Posted by David H. Lipman on June 15, 2006, 6:08 pm
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| No; a "good" BIOS virus will write one on the HD, so that if the BIOS
| was somehow "fixed", then the boot virus will rewrite the BIOS copy.
| Just like some virii hide a copy in the registry garbage pile.
| Three components: the running program, the HD file(s), and the
| registry entry/entries.
| Delete any part and it will shortly pop back.
| Almost as bad as the chicken and egg "problem".

Completely -- WRONG !

There are viruses such as the CIH (aka; Chernobyl) and Keriz that can corrupt or
erase a
Flashable BIOS that has not been write-protected but there are NO viruses that
"infect" a
BIOS.

--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm



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