July 24, 2000
By D. IAN HOPPER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Researchers at a Russian antivirus company announced Thursday that they have discovered what they say is the first computer virus that infects AutoCAD, a popular architecture and design tool.
AutoCAD, made by San Rafael, Calif.-based Autodesk, Inc., is the most popular professional design program in the world, used by architects and engineers to draft buildings, roads, landscapes or furniture.
Kaspersky Lab calls the virus, named ACAD.Star, an "extremely primitive" and tiny macro virus, just over 500 bytes in length. A macro is a set of commands used to automate or speed up repetitive processes. There are many macro viruses, frequently found in Microsoft's Word or Excel office software.
Autodesk recently licensed Microsoft's macro programming language, Visual Basic, for the company's AutoCAD product. Visual Basic is a popular language for virus-writers. ACAD.Star and the recent "Love Bug" and "Stages" viruses were written in this language.
Autodesk representatives had not yet heard of the virus, and did not immediately comment.
Researchers classified this virus as a "first try," and said it is sloppy and contains many errors that could keep it from proliferating. Kaspersky Lab has received no damage reports, and said it has only been found once, on a virus development Web site July 18.
The lab said only users of AutoCAD 2000, the most recent version, are affected.
