Interview with Metabolis
by The Unforgiven

Metabolis is an Australian guy. He formed Vlad (Virus Labs and Distribution) some while ago. Vlad is ofcos a viruswriting group. This group (vlad) releases a magazine. Metabolis duty in Vlad, is pretty much alike my position in IR. He organize some things, keep the group releasing things, and code some stuff. Metabolis is also a very nice guy. If someone want to get a closer view who this guy is, read the vlad magazine's (two issue's relesed..), or get on IRC #virus, in where, he spend quite some time.

Gimme a short intruduction of who you are!

Well heh I'm 18, basically I sit at the computer most of my spare time, I don't do much coding.. just enough to keep Qark happy :) hehe. My job's more the promotional side of things, getting people to grab our magazine etc. Not much time for hobbies when I'm always trying to get on IRC as much as I can :) but hmm I go to the occasional rave party.. that's pretty cool. I don't work, at the moment I'm trying to finish a course at college. Not doing too well since I'm hardly there but hey, I'll get there :).

Any thoughts behind that handle, Metabolis?

The thing I really hate, is thinking up handles. I've had quite a few over the last few years and I was sort of running out of things to use. So I just opened my age old box of ZX Spectrum 48k computer games and saw one called Metabolis. End of story! :)

When did you discovered the world of computers, and why did you start with this expensive shitty hobby?

I've always liked being part of a group, there's a central goal and it gives you something to do, and if you're good at what you do.. there's a slight self satisfaction kick involved. So one time I figured it'd be cool to have a go at this virus business, I wasn't too serious since I could hardly code assembler at all, but heh I did it. Then one day someone told me I should talk to Qark cos he's into virus stuff too. I got hold of him and yep, he was pretty good. From there we set out to make the vlad magazine, we weren't really aiming at such a global scale as what we ended up with.

So.. why did you start creating viruses?

Hmm I wasn't too interested with the coding side of things originally, just the scene and organisation etc. I wrote the pascal one in vlad#1 because I dunno, I felt I had to contribute something and at the time I knew nothing about assembler. Then Qark came round and went through a parasitic .COM infector with me and hey presto, I get it now :) So I guess that was when I had the ability to. Prodigy 3.0 was an ok virus, not the best but I wasn't really aiming at it being a classic, more for other people as shit as me at it to learn from. That's one of the things we're all about.

Have you been involved in any other group that Vlad?

Let's just say I've tried many different things, and they always seemed to collapse in my face. VLAD has been good, there have been no problems, no abuse from anyone :). We actually have respect from some people which is good.

What's the groups goal?

Our goal really is to teach others how this virus shit is done.. to promote our country :). erm, I dunno that's about it really. We'll keep coding/writing until we have no more ideas I guess. Which should be quite a few more issues yet.

Why did you decided to release a magazine? I mean, you could as well release a package of viruses, etc. if it only was for the viruswriting itself..

Well that's just it you see, originally I couldn't really write much in the way of virus code. I just knew a fair amount of what went on in the scene etc. Most of my contributions to the magazine have been articles virus related but not code. So yeah, a magazine seemed right. We have things to say so we needed a medium through which we could portray this.

Are you planing to expand?

We did go on a member haul a while back but I think we're pretty much settled now with four. There are two others that might be joining soon but I think the ranks are full :). So, nah we're not really looking for anyone to join right now. Might do in the future.. we'll see.

Are you into other things in the underground computing, such as hacking, phreaking, etc? Or are you _solely_ a viruswriting group?

I guess you could say I'm into it, I've read quite a large amount of text files on various things, and have tried a bit of this and that, but nothing serious. I only bother when it serves a purpose. No need getting myself in trouble just for the fuck of it :).

How many viruses have you in person written?

Well I'll only count my assembler ones :) erm.. 5 I think, but they're very simple. Two of them I never bothered releasing (they were overwriting :). The other three, being Prodigy 3.0, Rod Fewster's Gonads (bwahahaha) and my contribution for the next magazine Overdrive.

Which one was the hardest to write?

Overdrive, my latest was the hardest. Doing the xor encryption I found a daunting task to begin with, it took me quite some time to get it to work :). It wasn't that difficult though, but I am at a basic stage still.

What do you think of the term non-destructive virus, or even a GOOD virus?

I think the term non-destructive virus applies to all of VLAD's creations! :) You won't find any formatting or random sector writes in our code. hmm I wrote an article on this very question I believe hehehe. In different people's eyes the word GOOD (when applied to a virus) can mean different things. Some see just the fact that a virus has appended to a file thus altering it's contents to be BAD. Whereas I would see this as good since it can most probably be removed if the need arises.

Do you have any sort of company or law-enforcement who are trying bust Vlad?

No, not that I know of. If there was I most probably wouldn't know, not having any "contacts" etc in any law enforcement agencies. We haven't done anything wrong so there isn't much reason for any law enforcement dudes to be interested in what we're doing.

What's your opinion about making viruswring illegal?

It would be like making any coding illegal, i.e. not possible! A more underground virus scene (than it already is) perhaps would be a good thing. It would kill a lot of the lamers that hang around :).

Do you spread your viruses in programs?

Well.. that's just it, if we started doing that we definately would have law enforcement agencies on our tail. No, we don't bother to release our viruses to the public through any sort of software (except our magazine of course :). If any infections occur overseas it's the readers, not us heh. A much safer situation to be in.

What's your opinion about newspaper, and computer-mags writing stuff about the virus scene?

So long as the shit isn't prejudiced or one of these virus=gun and virus author=murderer type article I have no problems with that. Unfortunately most of the time it is exactly the opposite of how I like it :(

What do you think they, can do to improve the quality of the material published?

First get an understanding of what they're crapping on about, it seems most just talk to the AV ppl, and leave the VX out of it totally. This sorta makes us look like bad guys and basically a bunch of assholes. Which is not the case :)

Why do you think most reporters often twist one's words around, cutting quotes and in nearly all possible way, without lying, making us look very bad?

It sucks, nothing else to say about it really. It's not just the fact that they lie and twist what you say. Like, say if they told you they wouldn't print your real name etc, they don't. They print your school/uni, your height, your looks etc etc. The press are mostly a bunch of wankers :)

Has the scene in any way influented on your real life?

I guess it has, I never used to bother about internet before. I was just a local modem type person. Now I try and spend as much time on there (in IRC) as I can! My phone bill has gone up so you're right about it costing me money hehe.

Does your parents, close relatives, know what you're doing behind the computer?

Yeah, my parents know what I do.

So.. what's their opinion about it?

They don't mind at all so long as I don't get our computers infected :). They're fairly computer literate.

Whould you feel guilty if one of your viruses made damage to a hospital, or if someone DIED bcos of your virus? For example, knocking down the the server to 911, or something like that?

Hmmm our viruses should just infect and sit there, I guess they might cause destruction somehow but it's pretty unlikely. If it did, then it would be because of lack of virus security at the hospital or the 911 server! No foreign disks etc blah blah, that sort of shit.. usually that will fix things up for them. Sure I'd feel guilty but I don't think my parasitic .COM infectors will do much :)

Do you like, or admire any virusprogrammer?

Sure there are plenty, anyone who has made a worthwhile contribution to the scene. I admire Talon being the best virus coder in Australia (well that's what I reckon!). hehe he'd really like to read this now I think.

What do you think it takes to become a respected virus writer?

To become respected, you have to try and do what no one else has done! I may not have come up with anything brilliant but I did think up a few heurstics dodging methods when I wrote Prodigy 3 (hehe check out face of death/80hex for it :) [* Hrm, only 80hex, which was more or less a trojan.. - TU *] Or if you can't think of anything new, just keep turning out as many (non ripped) viruses as you can! VCL/G2/PS-MPC/NRGL/IVP hacks get lower than zero respect from me.

What's your opinion about the anti-virus persons?

I find most to be self righteous and arrogant. They never listen to what virus authors have to say, they just keep maintaining that we're bad and they're good. Well, it's time to start thinking about who pays their wages :).

Which anti-virus product do you prefer?

I like tbav for its heuristics, they are an endless supply of fun to think of how to code around them. I like f-prot for the lengthy virus names (great for scanning collections with :). Also AVP has some really good VSUM-like descriptions in it. They are the only ones I ever bother to execute.

Do you think there ever going to be a av-program able to guarantee 100% safety agains all viruses, worms and trojans for all future?

No, nothing can be 100% there will always be a way. I'm sure viruses will grow in size to get around these things but still they will always be around.

Do you know/heard of any new virus writing technique

I hear of a lot of things, various stealth things.. but never see any proof. Our flash bios infector was a new virus, not really in technique just the infection media (had to be said :). Bios and sector level stealth is what I hear about most, quite a few people reckon they've found new methods for this, but like I said, have yet to see anything.

Any advice to people who want's to learn the basic of virus-writing?

Sure, stick to it! After I learnt how the basics were done, I never bothered to keep on with it. I'm too lazy really hehe. Just read as many virus writing guides as you can, they never really helped me but they might someone. The best thing is for someone to actually sit down with ya and show you how it's done on the spot, I'd been trying to learn for ages and when Qark went through it with me, it was like an instant recognition of all the wrong shit I'd been doing.

Something else you wish to say, but never before have had the opportunity to say?

Not really, I tend to say what I want in our magazine :) although.. here's something I'd like to say in your magazine :)

you can email any member of VLAD at these addresses
meta@tempest.rhn.orst.edu
qark@tempest.rhn.orst.edu
darkman@tempest.rhn.orst.edu
automag@tempest.rhn.orst.edu
and if you don't have our magazines you can grab them at
ftp: ftp.netcom.com /pub/bradleym/misc-zines
or if you can IRC you can get them from VLADdist (my robot)
They should be available on any decent VX BBSs anyway.

Any helloes or goto hell messages? :)

Ah, I know so many people these days.. hello to everyone I know, to those I don't try and get in touch with me :). Always happy to hear comments/suggestions from people. (no abuse mail please :). As to goto hell messages.. well, hmm I can think of a few, but I'll hold back I think .. don't need any wars starting now do we hehe.

Well, that's it Metabolis.. thanks for your time. (typing /exit.. :) )