Interview with mandragore by PetiK for PetiKVX Ezine #2

Date : 18/05/2002

Q: Where do you live ?
   How is the situation of the virus scene in your land ?
A: froggyland.. the contry of awesome lovers and snail eaters )
   vx scene ? not developed as far as i know.. few vxers with few interactions..
   prolly some skilled ppl, but they are hidden (

Q: Where you get your handle ?
A: from misc orgs.. among 'em and in misorder: the amstrad game (aventure/heroic/fantasy), 
   the mystic folkore (its use by witches), and the plant properties (can be use as a drug),
   and finally it's a root, and i like uid 0 )

Q: How did you start out in computers ?
A: at 7, on my amstrad like many others.. i started basic, then z80 asm.
   i had a 386 at 15 and then i *really* started vx stuff: means i got involved,
   not only passively passioned.

Q: When do you hear the first time about computer virus ?
A: a bunch of years ago ) i came across tequila - the virus heh - that i spotted 
   beforin gettin infected.. then i discovered the real tequila )

Q: What was your first virus ?
A: basically mdrg v1.0.. com overwriter, if you consider this a virus.
   i quickly made the 'mdrg family' as avp and other AVs call it..
   but that wuz just learnin steps. the first i released wuz mdrg v5.0 on some local BBS..
   qwk pleasures )
   
Q: How did you start out in the VX scene ?
A: i wanted to learn more, deeper and faster.. so i tryied to meet other vxers
   i couldn't find ppl from the bbs network i knew by that time, so i tryied
   irc and found nice and less nice ppl. Both helped me to 'improve' myself )

Q: What (virus-)groups are you/have been a member of ?
   How long time ?
A: my first wuz invaders.. a short time grp made by some kickass vxer: buzz aka cmdr_pvc
   the grp collapsed after a bunch of month due to the lack of interactions between members.
   a lil while after billy belcebu convinced me to join DDT.. it wuz much more a real grp
   which didn't last long either tho ( we were close to some ppl at FS - feathered serpent 
   (owl, buzz, ...) so i asked owl, the boss, if i could joined. We had nice internal xchnges, 
   nothing public tho.. but i don't care. As members were 'old' in terms of vxing they slowly 
   left the vx scene, and so did the grp heh
   i joined 29A a long time after some time, when i thought i had the level
   but i joined too late, the fun wuz over and only few real 29Aers were still in the grp.
   due to internal problemes, mainly with virusbuster, i left, just like lordjulus did right after me.
   now i'm free )
   that's for vx.. i've been mmbr of the crackin grp CiA and contributed to synergy-x.. some hckin zine

Q: Which programming language are you using ?
   What is your favourite ?
A: hmm let's say asm (dos 16/32, win 32, linux, bsd), pascal, delphi, vc, gcc, and lotta scriptin craps
   my favorite is asm when its use is not stupid )

Q: How many and wich virus (or worm) did you write ?
   Which do you like best and why ?
A: my main ones were the mdrg family, glaurung dos, glaurung linux, azatoth 1 & 2, guinness, 
   penguin, madcow, taxifolia, ontheroad, gspot (aka gnuman by AVs), replay 1 & 2, alien
   there are dos/win32/nx
   my favorite is glaurung linux.. it's not perfect, but i learnt a lot while doin it, and it asked
   me lotta work and motivation since i started from scratch.

Q: How do you name your virus (or worm) ?
A: i just try to avoid stupid names.. so i pick meaningfull ones, and possibly not already used

Q: Do you prefer virii or worm ?
A: depends on what you call a worm ) if u refer to vbs shit spreadin through mail & mirc then virii.
   but if you refer to real worms (i'll take as example ramen and codered since they're recent), 
   then worms.. but why choose when you can have both ? )

Q: What sort of VX technics is the most interesting ?
A: it depends on each coder, so it's a good question. many ppl believe in engines and so on.
   according to me it's discovery and weird ways: i particularily enjoyed Q's virii, 
   like yougotit, nulspace, and so on what's the most important is the *new* idea, 
   the research. once again, for me.

Q: Do you spread your works ?
A: nah it's not the purposes.. but my gnutella worm escaped me, i admit

Q: What operating system(s) are you using to test your works ?
A: not always mine haha, but that's not spreadin actually )
   at home i test my creatures on w2k pro, w95c, mandrake, fbsd..
   for convenience i also use vmware times to times since you can easily replace the infected system )
   and also for nx i use a bootable cd distro (PLAC).. reboot and the system is all fresh )

Q: Which ezine do you read ?
A: less and less.. i still read 29A, i'm expecting nice stuff from TKT.. that's about it
   there are fewer zines released nowadays.. ppl r gimme their stuffs directly )

Q: What do you think about dangerous payload ?
A: 100% stupid nowadays, due to the ways of spreadin.. bloody ages ago there wuz an use,
   that i don't support, formatin a computer which doesn't spread breaks the infection chain 
   and makes findin sources of infections harder.. not stupid, but evil )
   if it's just to reach the headlines you deserve a painfull death heh

Q: What do you think about virus/worm generator ?
A: a nice exercise to make, a shame to use, even for the not-everyday computer user
   ppl codin 'em shouldn't mk 'em available to public

Q: What do you think about script (HTML,VBS,VBA) ?
A: i only saw a couple of nice stuff made usin it.. it's a platform to spread since there are targets,
   but up to now i only saw ppl rewritin the wheel.. pretty useless and boring
   i'd add : the choice of lewsers n/or lazys )

Q: Which coder do you respect ?
A: hmm several.. Q as i said above, buzz, owl, mrsandman, even spanksa ! )
   old ppl @ 29A.. billy, gryio, reptile, jacky, .. so many )

Q: What are your favourite virus/worm and why ?
A: i really enjoyed SSR virii among others, they gave me motivation and inspiration
   thx avpve btw )

Q: What is your favourite AV and why ?
A: the choice of vxers, AVP ) not the best in each field, but decent in all of 'em
   else.. nodice, drweb, eventually fprot

Q: How do you see the virus and the worm in the future ?
A: it's pretty sad.. but that's what old vxers thought in their time i guess )
   newcomers tend to choose the facility and are not willin to pay the efforts to learn
   so we'll see lotta teenagers with scriptin skillz (ironical) try to infect as many computer as
   possible at any cost for some cheap glory, without anything new nor interesting, even for 'em.
   i don't know for 'professional' vxin since i never came across some. but it could grow.

Q: What piece of advice would you give to the newbies ?
A: i'd tell 'em to ask themself what they want, what they expect and how to achiev it.
   don't rip other ppl code, take the time to spit something decent.. and code for you first.
   that's not a way to prove something, but a way to improve your computer comprehension. imho.

Q: Where can we see your works and how can we contact you ?
A: here and there ) mostly in zines.. ddt#1, 29A#4 for example
   if you really need to contact me u'll find the way.



								
								-- mandragore -