                        ******************************
                        ***                        ***
                        ***     Interview with     ***
                        ***      Weird Genius      ***
                        ******************************
                        ***         from           ***
                        ***     Serialkiller[CB]   ***
                        ******************************


1.  How did u get your name "Weird Genius" ?

I was programming my second assembly virus together with a friend somewhere 
in 1994 and up to then we used the names Psycho & Freud. When I solved a 
programming problem in an inventive way, Freud said: you're a genius, but a 
weird one. That's how I got that name :^)

2.  Which programing languages did you know ?

When I started coding viruses I knew Basic and very little Pascal. I learned 
assembly by doing the whole lot, writing on overwriting COM infector of 30 
bytes and so on. When MS Office came around Visual Basic was my next 
language. I do not know any C++ etc. Even if I wanted to know about it, I 
just don't have the time to learn it :^(

3.  Did you join a vx group before you join to the Codebreakers ?

Nope, Codebreakers is the first group I joined. 

4. Why did you join the Codebreakers ?

Two reasons, first of all I wanted my creations to gain some attention. The 
assembly viruses I wrote took about 4!! years to appear in the AV lists. I 
published the source code on www.ilf.net then and suddenly everyone (AV) 
knew it. Now when I write something, people know where to find it instantly 
:^)

Second reason is that Codebreakers has a very open structure which
is accessible for the newbie. If someone comes with a good question that 
person will defenitly get a serious answer. I like that approach. 
Programming a virus is easy once you know the basics. But to write a virus 
and be creative doing it with completely new things in it is difficult. That
is what I want to tell new people. (And help them doing it) 

5. Which AV programs did you try for yourself ?

I used to use TBAV when I was writing ASM bugs, I really loved the heuristic 
part of it as the flags produced by the scanner would give away exactly what 
TBAV was looking for in the code. This made it very easy to bypass and most 
of the times other scanners would not find the virus then as well. 

Since I work with VBA I use AVP, but I have to say that all AV software that 
looks for Macro viruses sucks big time. I don't understand that it it still 
possible to write a macro virus that is undetectable.

6. Why do you think this AV program is the best ?

I don't :^)

7.  Which viruses do you think are the viruses of the next generation ?

Cross platform viruses, spreading from VBA to EXE to DLL to HTML whatever.
The more platforms one virus can jump the more difficult it is to get rid of 
it. Size of viruses don't have to be that small anymore. The majority of 
computer users don't look at the size of a file anymore, the only thing they
look at is how many gig's are still free on their hard drive and when it's 
full, they add one.

8. How many viruses have you coded ?

About 10 I guess, two of them in 1994 DNA.1206 and Getpass (Weird.1800) where
assembly viruses. (Getpass is funny as it steals Novell 3.12 passwords)
Then I quit writing viruses for a long time. Decided to write some again in 
1998 and then started to code Macro viruses. Easy and funny :^)

9.  What did you think about destructive payloads in viruses ?

Nothing, I wouldn't do it. There's a lot of arguments that every virus is a 
treath even when it has no intention to destroy data. I tend to agree with 
that. But since I am a virus writer, I try to minimize the damage as much as 
possible:^)

10. Which payloads did you try in your viruses ?

Mainly annoing payloads. Getpass would collect Novell usernames and password 
and print them on the first of the month. My macro viruses have some payload 
like a message box or refusing to open a document on a Sunday afternoon :^) 

11. Did you spread your viruses and when how did you do it ?

I did never spread my viruses, but I always publish the source code. It is 
surprising to see how the AV world is monitoring the VX sites. Where it took 
4 years to have DNA and Getpass in the AV lists, it now takes about two weeks 
before my bugs appear in there. (Congrats to AVP, you're the best doing that)

12. What did you think about java viruses ?

To be honest, I haven't looked at it much and because of that I always have 
Java disabled. Hehehe. It is an interesting concept and I will have to look 
into it in the near future. 

13. Which viruses will you create in the next future ?

I don't know yet, for now I still enjoy writing macro viruses. But I probably
will write something in assembly again in the future.

14. Greets to other VXér and groups

OK, there we go:

All the CodeBreakers
VicodinES (retired, but I'm pretty sure he's still lurkin:^)
Webmaster 'Virus'
AVM
Foxz from NoMercy 
Freud (1967 - 1995) I will not forget you my friend.

15. Hate messages to: 

No one. I'm not a hatefull person, Even no hate message to Fred Cohen. 
I think that with his actions he has become himself that what he seems
to hate the most...

Just one remark left. Browsing trough alt.comp.virus for example I cannot 
ignore the fact that a lot of AV people are acting just as 'childly' as they 
claim virus writers are acting. One remark to those people, if the VX world 
would stop writing a single virus for the next few years you will have to 
find new way's to put bread on your table. Be aware that, altough you hate 
our guts, we are also your means of existance.

Ugh!

ThE wEiRd GeNiUs



