Lesson 2: Virus Catagories
Master boot record
Master boot record viruses are almost identical to boot sector viruses. In fact many people put both in the same category. The only difference of note is that generally speaking Master boot record viruses store a legitimate version of the master boot record in a different location.
An example of a master boot record virus is the AntiExe virus. AntiExe uses stealth technology in a fairly successful attempt to outwit virus detection programs. Virus protection programs are often designed to detect activity that resembles a virus as well as actually searching for known virus codes. AntiExe gets around this by performing seemingly legitimate functions to infect an unknown executable program. Once a computer is infected it will not allow the target exe program to execute. The only way for a virus detection program to clean AntiExe is if it is up to date and knows to look for AntiExe.
