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Need to check if this is technically correct


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I write as a hobby, d my current story is about a guy who received a floppy disk in the mail, ran it, and found a weird DOS program that kept on asking him questions before overloading his old PC. He then returns to his Mac, and discovered a weird message on his Mac, despite the fact that the old PC wasn't even connected to the internet, so he posted the events on a forum to get some clues, like this:

 

 

My posts usually went something like this:

ZippoPinhead (my go-to forum username)

So I got a floppy disk in the mail, no return address. Weird, right? Well, that?s just the start of it. So I loaded that thing up on my old Windows 98 computer and there was this DOS app called ?RUN ME?. And to add another layer to the weirdness cake, I checked the file properties and the company name was ?longforgotten? and the Internal name was something like ?justrunitalready.exe?

So I ran that thing, and the first thing that came out was asking me if I remember and how could I forget (Sheesh, come to think of it it sounds like my ex) and asked me the significance of 31st July 2000 and 1st August 1999 (Oh yeah, I found it at the file?s properties too, forgot to mention that) and then it told me I?ll remember, and then it flooded my computer and made a lot of beeping noises, so I turned it off.

Weird enough, right? Not really. So I went back to my Mac, and to add the icing to the weirdness cake, when I sat down there was this dialogue box that says I will remember and how forgetting is human nature and instead of ?Cancel? and ?Okay? it said ?You Will? and ?Hate Yourself?.

I mean, that?s pretty ######ing weird if you consider the fact that the old Win 98 pc wasn?t even connected to my network. I use it mostly to play my old games like Diablo II and Quake, really. And I don?t have to tell you how different OS X is compared to Windows 98 for that ######ing matter.

Oh, and to add a cherry on top of the weirdness cake?

When I booted that old computer there was this DOS prompt that said ?One of many?, which I assumed that I?ll probably have more floppies sent my way. Oh yeah, when I tried to make a copy of the app it went missing as well, or I would?ve grabbed some screenshots or told you guys to run it in a VM or something.

So, yeah.  Anyone has any idea what?s going on?

 

Among the replies I received were:

FrankR

I have no idea what?s going on here, but now I?m craving cake.           

DejaEntendu

I really have no idea what to make out of this. Have you googled the name of the weird DOS application and see if anyone else got it or you just got an outdated virus? In that case I guess you better scan that computer as well.

Jr957

Alright, technical weirdness aside, I don?t think any of us has even heard of that thing. It could be someone mailing floppies of an old DOS app they made ages ago to random people for lulz.

DeltaLord

Dude, that?s a really weird story. Sure that?s not a bad batch of weed you just smoked?

CrazedCoder

Well, it have no idea how, but that kind of app did happen back in the heyday of DOS, so I assumed it?s something the guy whipped up in C++ for fun. But the Mac dialogue box thing was pretty weird. I mean, yeah you can make something like that in C++but the fact that:

  1. The architecture of OS X and Windows are wildly different, like you?ve mentioned earlier.
  2. And if, and this is a pretty big if, both computers are networked, there?s no way a DOS app somehow manage to find a Mac OS X machine and launch it. People usually make different versions of the same program for that.
  3. Not to mention that OS X was launched when people where phasing out Win 98 for XP. It would?ve made more sense if it was a Windows exe file with a hidden script for other platforms, but I don?t think I?ve seen one so far, and the dates are too far, while they match a file you?d get during the Win 98 era, it doesn?t seem that way for OS X.

So my best assumption is that whoever sent you this somehow found vulnerability in your system (shocking, I know) and launched the script. Check your logs, you might find something. I think it might be related to that floppy you got, but I just don?t know how or what. I really have no idea.

So I was wondering, was the information given by the forum members accurate or not? If no, what did I get wrong?

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My posts usually went something like this:

ZippoPinhead (my go-to forum username)

So I got a floppy disk in the mail, no return address. Weird, right? Well, that?s just the start of it. So I loaded that thing up on my old Windows 98 computer and there was this DOS app called ?RUN ME?. And to add another layer to the weirdness cake, I checked the file properties and the company name was ?longforgotten? and the Internal name was something like ?justrunitalready.exe?

So I ran that thing, and the first thing that came out up (on screen?) was a question asking me if I remembered and how could I forget (Sheesh, come to think of it, it sounds a lot like my ex) and asked me the significance of 31st July 2000 and 1st August 1999 (Oh yeah, I found it at that info in the file?s properties too, forgot to mention that). And then it told me I?ll remember, and then it flooded my computer and made a lot of beeping noises, so I turned it off.

Weird enough, right? Not really. So I went back to my Mac, and to add the icing to the weirdness cake, when I sat down there was this dialogue box that says I will remember and how forgetting is human nature and instead of ?Cancel? and ?Okay? it said ?You Will? and ?Hate Yourself?.

I mean, that?s pretty ######ing weird if you consider the fact that the old Win 98 pc wasn?t even connected to my network. I use it mostly to play my old games like Diablo II and Quake, really. And I don?t have to tell you how different OS X is compared to Windows 98 for that ######ing matter.

Oh, and to add a cherry on top of the weirdness cake?

When I booted that old computer there was this DOS prompt that said ?One of many?, which I assumed that I?ll probably have more floppies sent my way. Oh yeah, when I tried to make a copy of the app it went missing as well, or I would?ve grabbed some screenshots or told you guys to run it in a VM or something.

So, yeah.  Anyone has any idea what?s going on?

 

Among the replies I received were:

FrankR

I have no idea what?s going on here, but now I?m craving cake.           

DejaEntendu

I really have no idea what to make out of this. Have you googled the name of the weird DOS application and see if anyone else got it or you just got an outdated virus? In that case I guess you better scan that computer as well.

Jr957

Alright, technical weirdness aside, I don?t think any of us has even heard of that thing. It could be someone mailing floppies of an old DOS app they made ages ago to random people for lulz.

DeltaLord

Dude, that?s a really weird story. Sure that?s not a bad batch of weed you just smoked?

CrazedCoder

Well, it have no idea how, but that kind of app did happen back in the heyday of DOS, so I assumed it?s something the guy whipped up in C++ for fun. But the Mac dialogue box thing was pretty weird. I mean, yeah you can make something like that in C++but the fact that:

  1. The architecture of OS X and Windows are wildly different, like you?ve mentioned earlier.
  2. And if, and this is a pretty big if, both computers are networked, there?s no way a DOS app somehow manage to find a Mac OS X machine and launch it. People usually make different versions of the same program for that.
  3. Not to mention that OS X was launched when people where phasing out Win 98 for XP. It would?ve made more sense if it was a Windows exe file with a hidden script for other platforms, but I don?t think I?ve seen one so far, and the dates are too far, while they match a file you?d get during the Win 98 era, it doesn?t seem that way for OS X.

So my best assumption is that whoever sent you this somehow found vulnerability in your system (shocking, I know) and launched the script. Check your logs, you might find something. I think it might be related to that floppy you got, but I just don?t know how or what. I really have no idea.

 

I think FrankR nailed it :)

 

The thing is, you get all sorts of people trying to give advice on forums, much of it bull####, so it doesn't really matter if CrazedCoder is 100% accurate in his assumptions, it all sounds plausible enough to me.

 

You could bring this into the story, if you haven't already got something planned... http://threatpost.com/acoustical-mesh-network-used-to-infect-air-gapped-computers

 

Apologies for giving up 1/4 of the way through, I got tired of pretending to be an editor, it's 1:55am here.

 

I like the premise, seems like something I would enjoy reading (as long as it gets dark and twisted) :woot:

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Hello,

 

I'd suggest going with a name of "RUN_ME.COM" or "RUN_ME.EXE" for the app's filename (or "RUN-ME", "RUNME" or similar permutations) as spaces were not commonly used in DOS filenames as they were difficult to work with (e.g., no escaping mechanism from within COMMAND.COM), which make them impractical to work with unless you were doing all of your workflow in something WordPerfect (which was better?or worse, depending upon your point of view) at handling things like filenames and extensions that used names reserved for devices like CON, LPT, NUL, PRN and so forth.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

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