Introduction to Batch File Viruses: We’ll be learning about batch file viruses. We’ll look at various techniques used in small and simple batch file scripts. Even if you have no background in programming, you’ll find it very easy to follow along and learn.
What are batch files?
A batch file is a name given to a type of script file, a text file containing a series of commands to be executed by the command interpreter. Batch files have the extension .bat(or .cmd). They can be easily created using any text editor such as notepad. See here for more details about batch script file.
Now let’s see some of these commands.
echo Hello World
The echo command is used to print out a message, in this case, “Hello World”. Type up the above in a text editor and save it as something.bat. Now open it and a command window pops up. But you’ll notice that it closes before we get a chance to see what it outputs. Let’s fix that.
echo Hello World pause
The pause command pauses the execution of the batch file until a user presses a key. You should now see the following output:
C:\>echo Hello World Hello World Press any key to continue . . .
It first prints
C:\>echo Hello World
then actually executes it to output Hello World. Let’s see if we can clean this up a little for better GUI (graphical user interface) purposes.
@echo off echo Hello World
And this outputs…
Hello World Press any key to continue . . .
@echo off is used to stop the commands from being printed and leaves only the output of those commands. Now let’s add a little dynamic behaviour.
@echo off set a=Bernie echo Hello %a% pause
The set command is used to define variables that can hold different values, in this case the string “Bernie”. The variable name enclosed within %% is how we access the value stored in the variable.
Run the above and you should see:
Hello Bernie Press any key to continue . . .
Be careful here, the set command is pretty sensitive to the use of spaces:
set a=Bernie
means a has the value ‘Bernie’.
set a= Bernie
(with a space after the =) means ‘a’ has the value ‘ Bernie’ (with a space before it).
set a =Bernie
and (with a space before =) means that the variable is not defined as a but as a (‘a ’ followed by a space).
Some commands come with modifiers that slightly alter their behaviour:
@echo off set /a a=5 set /a b=10 set /a c=%a% + %b% echo %c% pause
In set /a, the /a part is telling set that it should treat the value of the variable as a number, allowing us to perform mathematical operations on it.
@echo off set /p a=Enter your name: echo Hello %a% pause
The /p modifier tells the set command that it should take in some input from the user and store that in the variable a. When you run the batch file, you will be prompted to enter something. The output looks like:
Enter your name: Eve Hello Eve Press any key to continue . . .
Examples of Batch Files
That was pretty easy, now let’s take a look at a couple more batch files that might actually be useful and then we’ll go and make some viruses.
Pinger Batch Script 1.0
@echo off title Pinger Batch Script 1.0 set /p target=Enter IP address or URL: ping %target% -t pause
This outputs the following:
Notice how the second code line ‘title Pinger Batch Script 1.0’ puts the caption “Pinger Batch Script 1.0” in the batch file window Title when it runs.
Used by itself or in conjunction with other batch script commands it’s pretty handy if you want to quickly ping an IP address/URL or check your internet connection.
NOTE: Pressing CTRL+C forcefully stops any running command (like ping -t which likes to run forever).
Shutdown Timer
This batch file schedules a shutdown after X minutes.
@echo off title Shutdown Input set /p mins=Enter number of minutes to wait until shutdown: set /a mins=%mins%*60 shutdown -s -t %mins%
Almost anything your operating system does for you can be done through batch files. You can even use them to automate repetitive and boring tasks. Remember batch files are scripts.
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