ANSI Bombs (was:Got this - not sure of authenticity.)

[Stephen_Palmer () ccmail us dell com (Stephen Palmer)]

> There is no way to transmit a virus to a computer via the terminal. 
> Sure, maybe you can turn the printer on and off. Or maybe start up an
> zmodem download but you cannot get a virus on a remote machine by sending 
> ascii...
>
> Jason

I disagree.  Well, maybe not with ASCII, but with ANSI.  Back several years ago,
ANSI bombs were quite common in the BBS world.  It evidently is posible with 
ANSI to load charactors into the keyboard buffer.  The most common sequence I 
remember was [Alt-X][CR]format c:[CR] which would exit most communications 
software, and then format the hard drive.  It seems possible to inflict more 
subtle damage, but I was more interested in preventing them than exploiting. 
(The solution lies in a replacement ANSI.SYS file which dis-allowed stacking the
keyboard buffer)

S.Palmer

---------------------------------------------------
| Stephen L. Palmer | elrond () bga com              | All opinions are my own. 
| Dell Comp. Corp.  | palmerst () ccmail us dell com | (unfortunately) 
---------------------------------------------------