Windows Defender false alarm

[ooiikkjj]

cal-4018 shows up in Windows Defender as infected by virus is there a new version? thanks...

[Folds]

@ooiikkjj — Thank you for pointing out this problem with Windows Defender.

cal-4018 does not contain any viruses. It is compiled from human-readable source code, using a compiler whose source code is part of that human-readable source code. The source code is short enough that individual persons can, and have, read and analyzed all of the code in various versions of the CAL. cal-4018 is capable of copying files, and of making a new version of itself. But it only does so in response to specific requests by the user. The documentation explains how to make such requests.

Windows Defender keeps a library of tiny snippets of executable code. For example, it thought that the code "to bump a rider" along a string in cal-4016 was suspicious. (This code literally just incremented two pointers.) One of the changes in cal-4018 was a minor change in how this incrementing was done, which (for a while) caused Windows Defender to not complain about cal-4018.

At this time, I do not have time to investigate this issue. But if you (and/or someone else) can identify:

• [ ] What virus Windows Defender is complaining about,
• [ ] Which snippet of executable code is making Windows Defender suspicious,
• [ ] Which line(s) of source code correspond to that executable code, and
• [ ] A proposed change to the source code that is functionally equivalent, but allays Windows Defender's suspicions,

Then I will be happy to:

• [ ] Verify that the proposed change is functionally equivalent, and
• [ ] Release an updated version of the CAL.

You do not need to do all four steps yourself. Simply providing Windows Defender's full complaint about cal-4018 would be helpful.

[ooiikkjj]

Thank you for the response (Also thank you for keeping Plain English active...it's a mightily worthwhile project, but still haven't seen something awesome made with it yet!)

Here's the Windows Defender message below; the other things you suggest are far beyond my programming ability (am a novice!)

[image: image.png]

On Sat, May 29, 2021 at 6:59 PM Folds @.***> wrote:

@ooiikkjj https://github.com/ooiikkjj — Thank you for pointing out this problem with Windows Defender.

cal-4018 does not contain any viruses. It is compiled from human-readable source code, using a compiler whose source code is part of that human-readable source code. The source code is short enough that individual persons can, and have, read and analyzed all of the code in various versions of the CAL. cal-4018 is capable of copying files, and of making a new version of itself. But it only does so in response to specific requests by the user. The documentation explains how to make such requests.

Windows Defender keeps a library of tiny snippets of executable code. For example, it thought that the code "to bump a rider" along a string in cal-4016 was suspicious. (This code literally just incremented two pointers.) One of the changes in cal-4018 was a minor change in how this incrementing was done, which (for a while) caused Windows Defender to not complain about cal-4018.

At this time, I do not have time to investigate this issue. But if you (and/or someone else) can identify:

• What virus Windows Defender is complaining about,
• Which snippet of executable code is making Windows Defender suspicious,
• Which line(s) of source code correspond to that executable code, and
• A proposed change to the source code that is functionally equivalent, but allays Windows Defender's suspicions,

Then I will be happy to:

• Verify that the proposed change is functionally equivalent, and
• Release an updated version of the CAL.

You do not need to do all four steps yourself. Simply providing Windows Defender's full complaint about cal-4018 would be helpful.

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