Ok,

Virus that attacks a Computers BIOS..

Well some systems I have encountered over the past few years I have never had the time to find the name of the Mal-ware that has caused the problems.. that is after elliminating the user and random hardware probs as the cause..

1/ 2 cases different brands of sock 370 mobo's - No P.O.S.T .. Error message.. Had to auto script a reflash of BIOS..
2/ 15 to 20 cases various Slot1/socket 370 mobo's - Unable to reinstall OS or/and CD ROM not reading CD or/and cd-Draw not obeying commands - Had to Reset CMOS memory ie reset the Bios settings..
3/ 6 or 7 systems with similar to above symptoms - Had to Flash the BIOS to Fix.

With any machine that has been infected with recent virii a Good ol clearing/reset of the CMOS is a good precaution to prevent "hidden" nasties.. And why do I follow this path?

How many of the motherboards built in the last 4-5 years that you know of came with a windows/dos based Cmos/bios utility? OK and how many of those had a utility that allowed internet/windows BIOS updateing?..

Your BIOS EEPROM and RAM occupy the lower areas of the systems memory map (I am assuming little has changed in 10 years), your operating system is able to interogate this area as well as write to some areas (clock settings, etc), so a virus would writer will have no problems identifing the bios type, and perhaps leave a package in the unused area of the CMOS.
Further to this, a Mal-ware code (read Virus, mal-ware script etc) would identify the Bios type and with a basic libary of Chip types, Bios manufacturers and MoBo manufactures, would then successfully damage the BIOS Software and or store further damaging code.

To back this up.. check out old DOS utilities for backing up and restoring a systems CMOS.. some would reeport how much free memory in the CMOS (couldn't see a use for it at the time.. not very forward thinking was I)

I hope I made sence..


Cheers