Writing Viruses for Pocket PC.

[Dave]

[refractor]

[suchiaruzu]

[Dave]

[BurningSheep]

[James S]

[Dan East]

By definition, a virus replicates. The vast, vast majority of Pocket PCs are a) never connected directly to another Pocket PC, and b) not directly connected to a network (via modem, ethernet, WiFi, etc). In other words, once a virus reaches a Pocket PC it will never have an opportunity to spread to another Pocket PC, which makes the whole exercise pretty pointless. One could argue the educational value of such an effort, but there are certainly more fruitful products that could be produced as a by-product of the educational process.

Dan East

[Dave]

[BurningSheep]

[Developer Newbie]

[angedelamort]

[James S]

The only reason it would be locked is because some unregistered loser wants to post in large red font. Words mean the same thing no matter what font you type them in, buddy. And when you use large red all the time it defeats the purpose of the post entirely.

[gamefreaks]

My desktop PC keeps ketting a pissing Klez virus...harmless but annoying!

I hate virus writers, so if my HPC gets a virus, im gonna' bitch-slap your punk-ass so hard you'll be crappin' viruses like a pig on laxatives. comprendai?

Ok, on with the show.

[Capt Picard]

I find this an interesting discussion. Certainly discussing the possibility shouldn't be banned either.

I don't think developing virii is wrong, especially when it is done in a controlled environment, where it isn't given a chance to spread.

However, I get the feeling that this is not what TechMage intended. Let me assure you, that a released virus, no matter what it does (ie: how unharmful it is) is illegal, and it is extremely serious (if it propagates enough).

So if you plan on testing it on PocketPCs that you own, go right ahead. However, if you plan on distributing it to other unsuspecting users, you may be in a lot of trouble.

[cryo]

The motivation for writing virii is the same than for writing the 10000th open source text editor: Boosting the ego. If we discuss virii in a controlled manner and "demistify" it by openly saying how easy it actually is, it might lead to some of the really dangerous guys leaving it because it's not elite and underground enough, but the lowlife kiddies will come out pretty soon with the first PVCK (PDA Virus Construction Kit (tm)).

Virii are not that big issue for PDA's right now, but wait until we have GPRS/Bluetooth/WLAN in all PDA's.

McAfee and Co. are gonna earn big $$ with PDA/SmartPhone antivirii.

cryo