No New Viruses

It’s a fine week when I don’t have to write about the latest and slimiest virus on the block. However, there is a small piece of news that everyone should be aware of. Chris Johnson’s excellent utility, Gatekeeper Aid, has been updated to version 1.1. Gatekeeper aid works by itself in stopping and eradicating WDEF, MDEF, and CDEF viruses whenever any file containing the virus is used. Gatekeeper Aid can be used in conjunction with Johnson’s Gatekeeper 1.1.1, a more general purpose utility for preventing viral activity on one’s Mac, or with John Norstad’s Disinfectant INIT.

The main fixes in Gatekeeper Aid 1.1 are in finding and eradicating WDEF and the latest MDEF C virus and to intercept possible mutations of these types of viruses. Also, Gatekeeper Aid 1.1 incorporates a retroactive fix for a conflict between Gatekeeper and System 6.0.7. This conflict manifests itself as Res(Sys) privilege violations (this conflict manifests itself when the ImageWriter printer is chosen and applications are executed under Finder, rather than MultiFinder). This was the side-effect of an unexpected change in MacOS 6.0.7 and not a bug in Gatekeeper. So if you use Gatekeeper and System 6.0.7, be sure to get this new version of Gatekeeper Aid.

Gatekeeper Aid is available from the usual online sources. If you can’t find it anywhere near you, and you have access to a modem, it’s available from the Memory Alpha BBS in Ithaca, NY at 607/257-5822. 2400 baud, No parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit.

Information from:
Chris Johnson — [email protected]
Adam C. Engst — TidBITS Editor
Mark Anbinder — [email protected]