CIH
aka Chernobyl / Spacefiller
- discovered
- 1998-06
- origin
- Taipei, Taiwan
- reported by
- various
- author
- Chen Ing-hau
- family
- CIH
- size
- 1003 bytes
- platform
- Windows 9x
- vector
- Portable Executable files
- payload
- destructive
- trigger
- April 26, the Chernobyl anniversary
Payload
Overwrites the first megabyte of the hard disk and attempts to flash the BIOS, rendering vulnerable motherboards unbootable. The first widely seen virus to damage hardware.
~ writeup coming soon ~
Related specimens
Sources
- Virus Bulletin, August 1998 :: Virus Bulletin, August 1998, CIH analysis
last updated: 2026-04-12 :: curated by the_curator