Member Avatar for bjsaturn

I scanned my system with Malwarebytes today and located the directories of several viruses. I used NotePad++ to open the executable files and deleted all the code written therein and saved the change to the virus. I proceeded to delete the viruses with Malwarebytes; but, I wondered, had I left the viruses changed with no code, would they still be able to execute their program?

My thought is, no. But, I would like to get a better understanding why or why not from those who understand computer viruses.

The name of one virus specifically, Trojan.Happili, if that helps.

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Member Avatar for rubberman

It depends upon the trojan/virus. Some also infect the boot sector of the system drive, so the next time you boot the system, it gets reinfected. I have also seen some that infect libraries (dll's) in the recovery partition, so even if you reinstall the system, it will still mung your system. These days, anti-virus operations are not so much for amateurs... I used to do this (fix infected systems) for a living as a systems consultant, and still do so part time. I charge people $200 USD per hour for the service.

FYI, there are also viruses that will embed themselves in the system flash (bios) memory, and will reinfect you even if the disc is clean! The NSA uses this method, as documented by Edward Snowden and Bruce Schneier, the noted security expert.

Member Avatar for gerbil

And some trojans are capable of self repair - they already download portions of themselves to complete the infection, so repair is quite straightforward.
Viruses? Nope, that's not how they work.

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