Virus.Win9x.CIH/Chernobyl Destroying a Physical Computer

The long awaited video of CIH trashing a standalone PC's BIOS and rendering the computer unable to boot. This video comes fourteen years to the day after CIH first unleashed its devastating payload upon the world.
When CIH infects files, it checks to see whether there are enough gaps to completely store its code, rather than simply writing its code to the end of the file and increasing file size. If it has enough space, CIH will infect the file without increasing file size. If it does not, CIH will ignore the file, giving it better ability to further infect a user's computer without the user noticing anything.
On April 26th (in the original variant), CIH activates, overwriting part of the BIOS (Basic Input Output System) and overwriting the first megabyte of all hard disks in an endless loop, causing the computer to crash. Once rebooted, the BIOS is corrupted and will no longer display anything on the screen or initiate the boot sequence, rendering the computer unusable.
I realize RogueAmp does have a video of CIH doing this same thing, but now there is a video of it activating in HD and with narration, which I feel is invaluable to the whole experience. It's humbling to watch a piece of software bring an entire computer to its knees.
Shoutout to my friend Wes (somefellow12345) who left one of the most amusing KZbin comments I've ever read on my old CIH video (which was done using a virtual machine).

[@awgybop1]

Virus in 1990: Your computer is done Virus in 2024: Ads on Google Chrome

[@the_unkilled2238]

+MinecraftKid45 LOL True XD

[@awgybop1]

true

[@Pakkens_Backyard]

+Kim-Yannick Jürs Ransomware - encrypts and demands money for decryption.

[@RoseDingus]

+MinecraftKid45 solution to ads: adblock

[@awgybop1]

XD true

[@chari6471]

This was the video which sparked my interest in cybersecurity as an 11 year old - I'm now at university studying mathematics and comp sci.. I thought this channel was the COOLEST thing in the world. Thank you so much for making such great content this whole time!

[@christinaandwena8917]

Same!! Except i’m submitting my last undergrad app tonight.

[@theuniversal6282]

Hi im that 11 year old except im 14

[@PunishedFelix]

this comment makes me feel so old

[@kmlumd44]

I'm 6 and I can write this program.

[@Nunya58294]

Good luck to you guys man! Stay safe out there

[@rootifera]

Since this is an old video I think you wouldn't check the comments but I'll write it anyway. At the time of CIH spreading I was working as a tech support for a small computer shop where we build and fix computers. Same day, we got over 50 computers killed by CIH. We had no idea how to fix it, internet wasn't common (and informative) as it is today. The solution we've found at the time was buying an eeprom programmer, remove BIOS chips from motherboards (only the ones with BIOS chip installed on a DIP Socket) and manually write bios firmware directly into it. Worked quite well, we managed to resurrect quite a few of those computers. Later Gigabyte released their first Dual Bios mainboard so they could avoid similar BIOS related problems. CIH was a big disaster for some people, but for me it was a new way of learning how things work. (Yes, I'm kind of glad CIH happened, sorry if you had trouble with it in the past)

[@chilbiyito]

thats really cool

[@FantasticFanatique]

Really interesting read

[@MrNikolau]

since this is an old comment i think you wouldnt check the replies but ill write it anyway. While watching the video, I wondered if anyone tried something like this and if it did work, i was about to search about it but here we are :) Thanksssss

[@rootifera]

@@MrNikolau hey :) after 30 years I'm still using this technique to change bios on my retro hardware collection. quite a few times I bricked motherboards over the years by putting wrong bios or power issues. this way I managed to backup the functional bios and reload if required. also now we have clips for SOP8 chips and many others. so yeah, it worked well for most cases. If I remember correctly we had a 100% success with gigabyte ga-6bxc cards but I might be remembering wrong . :)

[@Eye5x5]

nice!

[@MrJustapersn]

Apparently the guy who created the CIH Virus (Chernobyl Virus) works for Gigabyte now... Says a lot about why their newer motherboards have dual/backup BIOS

[@castirondude]

I'm surprised that the motherboard didn't have a ROM chip for fallback. Flash memory can get corrupted for any number of reasons.

[@LiEnby]

MrJustapersn heh except modern OSes have write access to EFI now for some reason

[@КошкатунБарсикович]

MrJustapersn It's Russian hackers

[@glovercarvalho1930]

@@LiEnby EFI partition has nothing to do with the BIOS directly. It's just a partition on the drive

[@LiEnby]

@@glovercarvalho1930 no they can overwrite the EFI firmware lol

[@wheatleymf]

1996: Prepare for unavoidable end of happy times, boy. 2016: Can i put some ad in your browser, please?

[@pele512]

2016: and steal evey keystroke that you make and sell your account info for $100 on the dark web. I'd prefer if they did what they used to in 1996.

[@pele512]

Lol, your computer was infected by Windows Vista :)

[@MosoKaiser]

2016: Encrypts your hard drive and asks for ransom.

[@MrMikopi]

+Viktor Horváth hahahaha that comment made my day

[@hexcellerateofficial]

+MosoKaiser Lol.

[@mscanlen]

I remember this well. I was at a computer distributor at the time and started having computer dealers bringing clients machines in. At first did not know it was a virus, but discovered that the BIOS chip was blank. Took a working machine which I booted up with the BIOS updating stiffy disk, then while on, removed the working BIOS chip, placed clients blank BIOS chip into the socket, ran BIOS updating program, removed the BIOS chip (while machine running) and placed back into client PC. Next impacted BIOS chip. Repeat process many times that day... No need to remove or replace the motherboard. Managed to onsell a lot of Anti virus software that month.

[@eddyeoq]

This might be CIH's last victim.

[@selami32]

+Edgar Quiroz nuff said

[@connfdm]

if you walked up to a guy, said "hey you, kill me" and he killed you, that wouldnt really count as being a victim to him, personally

[@rfractal]

Not on my watch!

[@TheEmeraldMenOfficial]

Edgar Quiroz Nope. Two years later, my Windows XP PC died to a version of CIH.

[@babyboomertwerkteam5662]

@@TheEmeraldMenOfficial bullshit because CIH only works on Windows 95, 98 and Me

[@danooct1]

Chen was not a disgruntled Yamaha employee, or anything of the sort. He just wrote a really cool virus that happened to infect several major businesses game demos, and especially pirated games, and confessed writing the virus to the police afterwards, but wasn't arrested until several years later when someone who lost their computer finally lodged a legal complaint against Chen. His notoriety actually helped him find job offers with dozens of Taiwanese firms.

[@darofleciarz]

ok

[@maya-the-shitposter]

@@darofleciarz May your woes be many, and your days few.

[@michamarkowski2204]

I've got my first PC in 2000. Every 2-3 months had to reinstall w98se, drivers and AV. Once, 6 months after OS reinstall (suspiciosly long time of no BSoDs) I've found I had no AV installed. So I tried to install AV but couldn't because of PCCIH infestation. After a scan from rescue CD I've learned I had over 600 infected files. And 10 of them came back infected every time I rebooted my PC after a scan. I made copies of those files on 1,44 MB diskettes and reformatted my drive. It worked, my BIOS was somehow safe, I've upgraded it for the first time in my life. Last year I've found that old diskette with infected files in my old room at my mothers flat. It brought some memories...

[@terrybull1534]

Load the disks. It will be fun

[@coaldustmarauder2071]

@@terrybull1534 -_-. yes. fun.

[@sc0or]

After I discovered NT 4.5 I forgot about “every 2-3 month reinstallation”. Win 95/98 was the most terrible OS in Universe, but it allowed Gates to earn his $100 blns. This is all we need to know about average people. Now Apple’s devices are the most unreliable with the worst support, but Apple costs $1 trln. Google finds only those documents it wants to find, uses our emails and browsing history, sells advs we never ask or want to see, but it also costs $1 trln. FB shows only ‘the best content for maximizing ex experience”, trades our data and bothers our contacts, purchases Oculus for $16B that will never work, but it also cost about a trillion ($660B)

[@Tuberex]

@@sc0or uhhh ok

[@todanceonbrokenglass]

Give danoot1 a digital copy of the disk lmao

[@marcusdudley7235]

I worked in PC repair at this time. We rescued a lot of motherboards with socketed BIOS chips by hot swapping the chips with a working identical or compatible motherboard and re-flashing them.

[@LBXComputers]

Came here to comment that too :)

[@cunninghambrian]

SwiftGull

[@hitmandahl]

Had no idea that was possible either

[@marcusdudley7235]

The chip is essentially a flash memory chip. During start up, its contents are read into RAM then executed. So once the read of the chip is finished it has no further function so it can be removed without consequence. So, if you have an identical working motherboard, you can boot it up into a DOS environment with flashing tools installed, remove the bios chip when it is done booting, replace it with the bad chip from the bad motherboard, then run the flashing process to re-flash the chip. Then swap them back and your bad motherboard is working again.

[@ausintune9014]

Marc Dudlee you sometimes wish that the memory is unwritable but then you can't update the bios.

[@MrLancar]

I remember I had this on my computer back in the day. I was saved from it actually by a game, Total Annihilation. A patch file meant to update the game to a certain version would refuse to run properly with a very specific error, and as I found out when checking it online this was due to a CIH infection. One run of a removal tool later and I could see that pretty much half my entire harddrive had been infected.... and I hadn't even noticed. The computer ran just fine throughout it all. What a devious piece of malware that was.

[@deafkite638]

I'm guessing either you didnt reach the payload date, or your motherboard was not compatible

[@IrisGalaxis]

@@deafkite638 Even if the motherboard wasn't compatible, CIH would've thrashed the MBR, so apparently he never reached the date.

[@trwijbenga]

Great game, TA

[@drillcream]

How ironic that it was that game which saved your computer from total annihilation

[@HQA0]

If you were planning on making up crap you could have atleast fact checked it against the video

[@SephiMilner]

Can't help but wonder why the guy who created CIH didn't wait until 01/01/2000 and actually make Y2K real. That would've just been even more genius than he already was.

[@coronaradiata3065]

The entire virus I believe was a reference to the Chernobyl incident, which occured on April 26th, 1986. Hence the payload date, and also why the virus is sometimes known as Chernobyl too.

[@naphy]

the problem might've been fixed until that time, so maybe he didn't wanted to risk having his idea of a virus become completely useless

[@gairisiuil]

@@coronaradiata3065 no april 26th was the author's birthday

[@Eye5x5]

The virus is also called Chernobyl, it is named that after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant also called Vladimir Lenin Nuclear Power Plant, the power plant's 4th reactor underwent massive failure on April 26 1986, causing it to meltdown and blow up, the Chernobyl incident was the biggest nuclear disaster in the history of mankind, that is why the payload is set to April 26. Though the idea to set it to 01/01/2000 is great.

[@gairisiuil]

@@Eye5x5 it is not WHY the payload is april 26, that is a coincidence. also, i was wrong; i looked it up, and it is not the author's birthday, it is the date the virus was created

[@CatandFriends1]

Danooct1, you're probably one of the only person to often say something along the lines of 'Darnit, this computer virus isn't destroying the computer!'

[@khirasier]

don't worry i would say the same thing in my computer hardware and networking course when we were being little shits and see how well we could destroy a computer

[@aggserp4340]

Viruses nowadays: GIMME UR CREDIT CARD NUMBER TO REMOVE SPYWARE Viruses back then: trashed computer

[@MisterRON]

+The Fail Army Making money is very alluring.

[@LanIost]

+The Fail Army also, spyware != virus. They don't self replicate. .. And if they do then they are a virus =)

[@aggserp4340]

C.I.A \\ A big guy huh?

[@makkypak415]

Tru

[@haydenswenson556]

+Lukiz ™ (SteveN_) JOEL! YOU PISS CHILD!

[@SwervingLemon]

I was working in a tech support queue for a major PC manufacturer the day that virus hit. It was depressing. The guy in the cubicle next to me couldn't stop laughing in between calls. We probably diagnosed about 120 cases each and there were at least 150 more techs on the floor that day. We called people in, offering overtime to help clear the queue. Not widespread? It might be the single most successful virus that actually caused damage, and still pretty high even amongst viruses in general.

[@danooct1]

well, compared to some email and net-worms of the era it wasn't particularly widespread, and it definitely didn't result in the computer doomsday that some analysts predicted, but it's definitely a unique one (and I can definitely see how agonizing it would be to work in the tech support field that day). thanks for sharing your story! i love anecdotes like those.

[@SwervingLemon]

True, it didn't spread nearly as fast or far as some of the worms did. However, in terms of dollar amounts of damage caused by it's stealthy payload - it's still one of the top. Love your channel, by the way. Don't let anyone try to convince you that that machine was worth sparing the wrath of CIH. It's one thing to hear about it, another thing completely to witness it's destructive potential.

[@jovanjanevski3747]

It's not widespread because it kills it'victim host.

[@djdren]

Yes,it was very widespread .. kinda like pc version of covid19,it was a nightmare for me..

[@alienduce-unocero]

@@djdren what happened to ya m8?

[@Zampther]

When i was a kid there was a rumor about a virus that would make your computer explode, nice way of scaring the shite out of me as a kid who was not very tech sawy...

[@Alex_4rex]

ikr...

[@HelloKittyFanMan....]

Huhh, alex?

[@FriedrichTheGreatest]

I heard of a similar non existent virus that would make your fan spin at incredible speeds, causing the friction to set a fire. Essentially roasting your pc

[@kohul_sol5105]

That appeared in the news when I was a kid.

[@callmenutty3020]

All you have to do is create a virus that would force overclock your cpu to insane levels and increase the voltage to insane levels which will literally melt your pc

[@RestauracionMusical655]

Why did youtube recommended me this 8 years later?

[@shetto]

Were you on youtube 8 years ago?

[@ace-smith]

22 even

[@chemputer]

The algorithm works in mysterious ways.

[@PlytkaChodnikowa]

I have same question.

[@jathinyadav7109]

Maybe cuz coronaVIRUS is trending rn😬

[@gbw4908]

I just got recommended by this lol

[@mrtuvok5578]

i searched for this

[@diy-speaker]

Got it right now. LOL

[@bw5291]

By this to this or to this by this?

[@svistiik]

Me too

[@LAUTI1999]

Me too, maybe a signal of the apocalipsis?

[@niaschim]

I just subbed to your channel. When I was younger: viruses reminded me of digimon, so was always hoping that my technology would magically get a computer virus; because they seemed as alive as real viruses, like, a cool grey area between alive and inert. Now I know better, but still, cool

[@renakunisaki]

I wish viruses were Digimon.

[@marcofeature]

The virus was created by CIH, or Ing-Hau Chen, in his college and hereby its name. It was created in his lab to demonstrate a vulnerability. Somehow one of his labmates carried it out of the lab without knowing it, and consequently spread it to the whole world. He was investigated by the Taiwanese police, but in the end no charge was filed against him. He later worked for Yahoo and Gigabytes, and now owns his own company. He also works with Taiwanese police and the military on cyber security matters.

[@128bit_real]

If a friend of his spread it, then this is a Half-Life tyoe scenario!

[@ValuableBlueberry]

​@@128bit_real Half Life?

[@morten1]

Offtopic, I do miss that windows 90's look and feel

[@liquidvessel]

Tech Support Guy: Did you try wrapping it in a blanket?

[@yeadontwearitout]

What that PC needs is a white sheet and a trip to the morgue

[@TechFabLab]

I repaired hundreds of computers that were killed with that cih. The hard disk was always repairable, and the bios was reflashable in the vast majority of the motherboards. A flash memory programmer was needed. It was also possible to immunize the bios against cih by fixing the state of a memory write pin, but that impeded upgrading the bios also. cih worked because the bios was upgradable/reflashabe onboard.

[@ching-chenhuang8119]

According to the author of CIH virus, CIH, he just wanted to challenge antivirus software in the market, see if anyone of them could handled it. It took him just one day to write the virus, then spent another 6 days, just to make it smaller, so the virus came to just 1KB of size.

[@freezEware]

This video was extremely professionally made and a pleasure to watch. This is probably the best video on the youtube i've ever seen. No kidding.

[@hikaru-live]

Two points I want to make here: if you are demonstrating CIH on a physical machine, make sure your compatible machine have a socketed BIOS chip and you have one of those "universal programmer" like Autoelectric TL866 series so the machine can be restored by taking the BIOS EEPROM chip out and reflash it with its original content as backed up (or with a BIOS update as released from the manufacturer), and you can use a patched version of QEMU virtual machine to replicate this BIOS flashing sequence and see the BIOS image file used for the VM getting trashed.

[@Unreality_3D]

陈北宗 So your the guy who made CIH, Nice to meet you.

[@hikaru-live]

Gazza B Sorry to burst the bubble but I am not the author of CIH, just I dabble enough in electronics engineering to the point of understanding the mechanism how CIH destroys the motherboard and how to recover it.

[@hikaru-live]

Alex Cawthon Sorry my grammar has so many layers of recursion that it will take a while for you to decipher. 😝😜

[@这是傻逼]

+陈北宗 2grammar4me

[@aggserp4340]

Mistakes: Your compatible machine *has* a socketed BIOS chip "universal *programmers*" Correct me if I was mistaken correcting your mistakes.

[@tristan6509]

The scary thing is that secure boot only appeared a couple of decades later...

[@LiEnby]

This has not much to do with secure boots

[@bitterlemonboy]

Secure boot is garbage. It is the greatest threat to free and open source operating systems.

[@bitterlemonboy]

One day the user won't have power to boot anything they want on their computer.

[@limitedarcturus9389]

for some reason this gives a feeling of nostalgia, the screen and him just saying the date lol

[@andrewkappler5503]

KZbin recommendations class 2020

[@slvr_l7732]

yeah thanks to KZbin they bring us back to the past easily

[@pedropinon2553]

yeah hahaa it made me fun too

[@andrewkappler5503]

@@slvr_l7732 lol def

[@andrewkappler5503]

@meme boi lol

[@HistorianTrevi]

Thank you for your insights into this subject! At least one of your videos should be showed in every Computer Science focused school! Good job!

[@eIucidate]

The computers on our home network were all infected by CIH but for some reason there were no devastating effects. It simply stopped WinZip Self-Extractors from working, and made the internet inaccessible (OK I realise that last point is pretty major but at least it didn't destroy anything). Everything was repaired via virus scanners. So I guess if we left it till April 26th things would have been a lot different?

[@danooct1]

+elucidate just a bit different

[@JonathanGray89]

You had a home network of Windows 9X computers?

[@eIucidate]

+Jonathan Gray Yes, a wired one.

[@xsc1000]

Yes, CIH tried to delete BIOS flash. Succes depended on motheboard design. Older MB had jumper to enable BIOS rewriting, in this case CIH couldnt work. On MB without this jumper, CIH rewrote flash memory. But many BIOS chips were in socket, so you could take it of and write correct version in EPROM writer (some PC shops did it). Or you could try reflash it in similar machine.

[@Miss0Demon]

The solution to all my computer problems restarting the computer has been FOILED!! DAMN YOU CIH! -

[@Mr.FastZombie]

[lol goes here]

[@TheFishCostume]

***** [lol goes over there]

[@connfdm]

[lol has a restraining file ordered against it, it cannot enter this area]

[@dustinrush4320]

Arctic Phantom MY PLAN FOR REMOVING CIH HAD FAILD!

[@Nixie-Nix]

This is legit my favorite video of yours; I think it would have been interesting to see a bit more demonstration on how this virus hides itself in .exe codes. Perhaps, taking the script of a medium-sized .exe with a large gap in the coding, and showing where in the code the virus hides itself in? Presuming the virus were to pick that .exe to hide a portion of itself in that is. Regardless I really love this video, there's not much information on the virus excluding that it wipes the BIOS, so it's neat to see that you gave it more perspective.

[@nasanierulastname2997]

Happy CIH day 2016 everyone!

[@Dana14]

Yapp :DD

[@sandereithun7443]

:)

[@multi3651]

but.. cih activates chernobyl reactor's explosion date, that's why it's called chernobtl virus... not quite happy tbh

[@evorm7329]

+A E S T I C S Vaporwave wait what

[@inf3321]

April 24 2012: Oops! I opened CIH, luckily nothing happened April 25 2012: Using computer normally, everything works... April 26 2012: FUUUUUUUUUU

[@12shaunte]

*sees username* *head explodes*

[@friedwater4434]

InfinityPlusOne it only works on april 26 is it

[@CapitalCuteHD]

R.I.P

[@aWildKITsune]

@@friedwater4434 all malware can be separated by the kind of trigger mechanism, doing little to nothing until a certain date is called a time bomb. In this case, the time was the 26th

[@brawlboi2946]

People are getting this recommended to them by KZbin while I am willingly seeing this

[@kailawebb]

you have a lovely voice.

[@mrevoomk4]

HA GAYYYYY!

[@illgeteverythingback]

+Evoo HD (Gaming) THATS WHAT IM TALKIN ABOUT HOMIE

[@mrevoomk4]

DaGrumpyTaco she/he doesnt look llike girl. #__#

[@keny2323]

+DaGrumpyTaco you can say dude to girls don't you know?

[@keny2323]

***** but usually you can, same as guys, you can say that to girls

[@FlameRat_YehLon]

It's said that this virus made double-bios motherboard pretty popular... At least in China? (The virus is made by a student in Taiwan whose name is CIH in short.)

[@MyraArcadia]

+野龍（FlameRat） The virus was created by Chen Ing-hau

[@FlameRat_YehLon]

Myra Arcadia I only knew how the name of that guy spelled in Chinese, but not in English... (Because, those old-school anti-virus guide books only talked about the Chinese name.)

[@BenKuyt64]

+野龍（FlameRat） In North America, there are a few companies with dual BIOS, mainly Gigabyte. I think MSI also has a dual BIOS/Uefi.

[@FlameRat_YehLon]

Ben Kuyt Both Gigabyte and MSI are Taiwan companies, and CIH is from Taiwan... So, it make sense, I guess?

[@BenKuyt64]

野龍 Indeed it does. I'm glad they thought of it too, since they're both wonderful companies product wise.

[@BotchPro]

Still among the most brutal computer viruses today. Thanks for all your hard work, Dan!

[@seanwilkinson3975]

I'm disappointed - I was expecting a mad flurry of screamers and shock images and "I'M LOOKING AT GAY PORN!" before the screen blew up and the tower burned and melted down.

[@user2C47]

1. A video cable does not have a self destruct wire (that's not even a feature) 2. Software can not make a computer overheat (not even hardware can)

[@blackhatvisions]

+Alex Jamieson you are such an idiot , recheck no.2

[@GamerTheTurtle]

fuck you talking about everytime I play gta v with my r9 390 on some cheapo office case it's at 70c I could literally heat up water

[@cementman_]

lol

[@jackielegs8010]

what the hell is a screamer? is it like one of those maze things where the exorcist girl pops out and screams?

[@RevwdGaming]

My video stopped to buffer the SECOND he started the virus xD Sort of freaked out for what ever reason.

[@khuntington]

I remember this in 1999. I came home from school and my step dad told me all the PCs in the house were toast. It was a sobering evening.

[@aymanad3437]

@@chararaasa80 tf is wrong with you

[@nonsensicalfox]

How the fuck did he manage to kill every single computer, it couldn't even spread itself. Sounds like he was out to blow shit up if that's true

[@khuntington]

@@nonsensicalfox to be fair, none of the pc's were physically harmed. we had 3 computers, and if i recall correctly, we just had to re-install windows on all 3. whatever it was, it just made the OS inoperable and had to be rebuilt. i have no idea what *actually* happened, but i do recall hearing something about chernobyl that evening, so i just assume thats what it was.

[@ChanceOfOne344254]

@@nonsensicalfox It’s possible they were all running CD drives with infected firmware or all pre-infected IBM PCs that were shipped out right before activation Or one computer had compromised software and via file transfer to other computers, infected them It’s also possible it was something completely different

[@esper4605]

I think this counts as snuff porn.

[@Speedkomodo]

Well on cybertron it is.

[@user-fz9uf5jf5v]

I fucking love snuff. This video is great, whole channel too.

[@GabryyLG]

@@user-fz9uf5jf5v also a Manhunt fan I presume?

[@nokti...]

protogens: **heavy breathing**

[@yolbert335]

@@nokti... *wh- WHAT DOES THIS MEAN*

[@ismaelcarrasco]

Ohhh this bring back good memories to me. It was the de 1999 year and a i was a young 11 years old child who was fascinated by computer viruses, specially The CIH. Thank you for show me the payload of this legendary virus of 90s. And sorry for my horrible english, im writing from Spain.

[@justinhamilton8647]

God damn the year CIH went off (1998), Chernobyl was 12 years prior. This video is already 11 years old. Next year, this video will be as old to us as Chernobyl was to CIH’s first payload activation.

[@ranitafeliz2987]

hello

[@InternetsDown]

There was a novel fix that a friend of mine did at the time when his machine was hit - if you had an identical board, and hot-swapped the CIH'd chip into the working board (while it was on and booted!) you could then use the BIOS flash utility to re-flash the faulty chip and replace it into the previously non-booting board. Awesome videos, please keep them coming!

[@holguacamol8408]

the BIOS is such a great acronym. like seriously 10/10 great.

[@Guilmon35249vr]

I will assume by the payload and how the PC reacted to having no BIOS present that my old PC got hit by this hard. Its behavior is identical.

[@oBUNo]

Thank God I only have to worry about crypto locker encrypting my useless files

[@skilz5698]

Yeah at least your machine isn't instantly nuked

[@kamild_]

And for anyone doing regular backups, ransomware/"crypto lockers" aren't even that much of a thing to worry about.

[@ryanpascual9598]

Long time alo I've had "CryptoLocker" in our old acer aspire laptop. However the owner managed to install Xubuntu

[@WackyH]

*7 petabytes of various rule34 intensifies*

[@ryanpascual9598]

@@WackyH OH GOD NO-

[@TheCRTman]

Very cool to see this, but what did you do with PC after this?

[@SteelmanArgument]

He obviously thrashed it, what else? But the only part that really "died" was the motherboard, all other components works as normal so maybe he kept those.

[@danooct1]

i scrapped the case because it was falling apart, threw out the CD drive because it took 30 tries to read any disc, kept the floppy disk drive, processor, and power supply, and salvaged the motherboard as a memento.

[@TheCRTman]

danooct1 What's a memento?

[@flappyzor]

TheCRTman did you actually go to school at some point or

[@SteelmanArgument]

Flappyzor I don't know it either, sounds spanish or something and according to the first Google result which is on Wiktionary it means "reminder" which doesn't make sense in his sentence.

[@scout7734]

Me: runs CIH file My computer: D’OH

[@WackyH]

D'OH

[@StanleyOpar]

wow...everything i've wanted to know about viruses but were too scared to do it. After finding your videos after looking up research for symbian based on the n-gage. (your skull video) for a youtube series i'm working on.. I can say my damned ADHD has kept me occupied for about an non-productive 2 hours. Congratulations good sir. here's a subscribe.

[@user-yl7ld7ww7j]

Best virus idea ever. A virus that changes every icon on your computer to snoop dog on weed day (April 20). I'd download immediately

[@kunzea]

10/10 best idea ever

[@justakid1639]

probably a "prank" program not a virus. it wont infect any of system

[@marcelo90z]

This is a joke. Viruses are made to destroy PCs

[@marioprincipessa306]

Just a random guy passing by, are there any ''known'' viruses that would destroy a computer with windows 8? Or the windows version doesn't matter? I ain't a tech expert so this would be interesting

[@supremacysammy3173]

Bestest Most Supreme Virus Idea Ever: *Weegee Virus!!!!*

[@jamess.9743]

Omg this was my very first virus I ever caught back in 98. Bought a gateway 2000 and luckily they sent me a brand new computer afterwards.

[@Autotrope]

Flashing a bios was indeed a thing in the 90s, even the 80s. But before a certain time it was just harder as it couldn't be done on a running system that had booted normally. Which you couldn't do here either because your system won't boot. Some boards provide their own way of flashing a bios without booting it (which can therefore be done with no CPU or memory installed). Back far enough in the past that would probably require connecting via some serial interface on the board itself. Further in the past it would mean physically removing the EEPROM chip (or maybe even EPROM) and reprogramming it on some other tool.

[@johanandersson8689]

Those were the days. I just love how a shitty executable on the desktop gets access to the underlying hardware without being a signed driver running in kernel space. I also love the absence of the concept of administrator and that an ordinary user can execute the shitty executable straight from the desktop.

[@RoozerXC]

When you run CIH, it pretends to be a TCP/IP ARP program in the command interpreter. However, it claims to be a carbon copy of that app which is infected

[@renakunisaki]

Probably just because ARP.EXE was the first executable it saw.

[@malwaretestingfan]

ARP.EXE is a goat file infected by CIH, CIH doesn't "pretend" to be any program.

[@pagb666]

I remember catching this thing, and realizing that my computer was infected because winzip sfx files would corrupt as soon as I explored any folder containing them.

[@maciekapocaliptic]

Known as "Czarnobyl" because of activation date 26.04

[@Leon-tb2oz]

+Minesat Może nie wiedział?

[@maciekapocaliptic]

Minesat Wiem, że w internetach są mądrale, dlatego Чорнобиль jeśli waść taki dosłowny.

[@jakeyounglol]

Virus in 19**: Your PC is toasted boi. Virus in 2019: Let me have your bank account.

[@Tallarines_69]

Yep xD

[@notgray88]

Virus in 2020: "hi i am a virus, can I please run on your hardware?"

[@andyderbyshire3441]

Zoom app...

[@Wombat24455]

noone: KZbin Recommendations 2019: Yep im just gonna put this here

[@PhilipAlexanderHassialis]

Even worse: KZbin Recommendations on 1/1/2020.

[@Nothing-ic1fl]

r/uselessnobody

[@SunnyShuklathedoctor]

@@Nothing-ic1fl hm I seem to have landed on Reddit from KZbin with no help whatsoever

[@Ozmon831]

and now 2020...

[@Wombat24455]

@@Ozmon831 yeah...

[@reinatycoon3644]

This surely was a very efficient and powerful pc virus. Chen Ing-hau is a great programmer damn. Great video.

[@ChanceOfOne344254]

it’s a shame it wasn’t intentionally spread out by him

[@caringheart34]

​@@ChanceOfOne344254 Bro got 60 million computers infected (destroyed and non-destroyed computer systems) even without an unintentional intent. If he truly did make it like a malware replicating the apocalypse, it would truly cause the largest incident known to internet history and would be a LARGE case study all around the globe

[@awesomeguysuncle]

Happy birthday, CIH!

[@Leuel48Fan]

I has an issue with a Windows Vista Toshiba Laptop a years back. I went to the OFFICIAL Toshiba website and downloaded this tool to upgrade the BIOS firmware, made sure it was the right model. So when I start the upgrade process, about 50% of the way the laptop suddenly shut off. Of course since it interrupted a firmware update, it wouldn't boot. Went to a shop to have it re-flashed and they told us the damn motherboard was bad. How the hell does that happen? Pissed me off since it caused irreversible damage. Someone care to explain?

[@Leuel48Fan]

***** One good think about Vista was I learned how to fix computers! Felt like there was a new pop-up error every day so I learned to Google it n' fix it no matter how "advanced" the steps were lol

[@TRGnoobie]

Murphy's Law. There are countless stories of devices being bricked due to firmware updates failing without user error. The BIOS has nothing to do with the OS, so no blaming Vista here. To minimise the chances of a firmware update failure, follow these steps: 1) Always ensure that your computer has a stable, reliable power source. If you are using a laptop, charge the battery fully and plug in the charger as well. On a desktop, use an uninterruptible power supply. 2) Follow the instructions of the computer/software manufacturer to the letter. 3) Do not attempt to shut off or restart the computer before the firmware update is complete. Other than that, there isn't much you can do, as it is almost impossible to fully mitigate all risks. But so long as you use the original firmware and you follow the instructions prescribed, and if your computer is under warranty, you should be able to send it back to the authorised service provider to have it fixed, or in your case, sent to a computer technician to have it fixed at a small price.

[@Leuel48Fan]

TRGnoobie Ya the BIOS isn't connected to the OS, however the upgrade tool I used was through Windows, meaning it was flashing the board while a tool in Vista was running. It's been a long time but I remember that it was plugged in at 100%, and I never interrupted it. A bad flash shouldn't mean permanent hardware damage though, in the end its still a software problem. A VERY critical software, but still software non the less. So even if I wasn't able to repair it at home, a tool at a shop was supposed to override the bad flash and reflash a functioning BIOS. How can the motherboard go "bad"? That usually means a physical component on the board has fried and I simply cant understand how a bad BIOS can physically fry a board. Bad update should mean a corrupted series of 0s and 1s in the chip's NAND memory, not a damaged one. Anyways it's not much valuable laptop today based on the specs, at the time it was expensive, but you know how price to performance of tech drops dramatically (Moore's law).

[@TRGnoobie]

Well, my motherboard has UEFI BIOS, but the only way to upgrade the firmware is through a USB drive, and I have to restart the system and enter the BIOS setup for it. It's an MSI Z68 chipset mobo. You're right on all counts. I was addressing the idea that there is always a chance of something going wrong. But you are right that technically, a motherboard isn't completely thrashed if the BIOS is corrupted, so long as it can be reflashed. But I'm not sure about the hardware of that era..

[@Leuel48Fan]

TRGnoobie Ya, oh well, like I said its been years. Anyways learned my lesson, if you don't have to, don't fuck with BIOS lol I literally was trying to update it just for the sake of it. Just got curious. I've fixed many computers than broke anyways because I try new things so its no big deal (now at least).

[@blackham7]

This is the only person I've seen actively trying to get a virus to run on his computer lmao

[@aero253]

Have you seen this guys channel? It’s all over!

[@wushiwashi]

Then you're too new to the virus review channels

[@Stykers]

I know this is alot of years ago, but since this is somehow in my recommendation, here's some stuff: just reprogram the eeprom via something with GPIO pins, and these kind of attacks will be harmless on modern Unix based operating systems as their boot process usually include overwriting the entire low memory which includes the BIOS handlers and thus prevents executing bios interrupts stuff

[@MrStewToobe]

I was the victim of this virus on so many occasions, when I got the message "DISK BOOT FAILURE" after the PC crashed, my heart sank. Luckily the virus didnt overwrite the BIOS so I could still use the PC, I thought it destroyed all the data from the hard drive being about 14 in 1998, if I knew about the recovery tools at the time it wouldnt be such a problem.

[@AppLHD]

This video in a nutshell "YOU ONLY GET ONE SHOT DO NOT MISS YOUR CHANCE TO BLOW"

[@bishubi]

+TheRealApp Virus.Win9x.NEVRLETITGO

[@AppLHD]

XD

[@MartyrMachine]

Sorry.. I blew 3 times.

[@AppLHD]

Clint Ethridge SHIT FAM...ahh its ok i cant stay mad at someone who blows...its just apart of life to blow, some harder than others. Its k (XDDDDDDDD)

[@iidapperdog8398]

TheRealApp What happened to phrasing!?

[@Simulation101YT]

Why am I getting this reccomended at 6:00PM April 26th 2021. KZbin is creepy

[@madman-xo3ru]

"And this kids is how skynet started." Some say it became self aware 2.14 am eastern time...

[@sneskid78]

The only option would be to reprogram the BIOS using either a BIOS programmer, or another motherboard that uses the same chip (provided it's socketed and not soldered in). Motherboard BIOSs back then, typically didn't have failsafe recovery options like they do now.

[@bugberrycloth5327]

No way this came out 11 years ago, I remember how excited I was when this video came out.

[@manictiger]

You can reset CMOS. It's usually either a button or a jumper. So the computer isn't toast and the data is entirely recoverable. Edit: Oh. They didn't have that in the 90's, heh.

[@thatguydownthesteet]

You just remove the battery and let it sit for a few minutes. You don't need a special jumper or button. 90s PCs had this. But the BIOS itself has been overwritten, so that will do no good.

[@iaincowell9747]

Yes, I had a virus before that had put a password on BIOS starting. I removed the battery from the motherboard for 5 minutes & that fixed it.

[@MsHojat]

There is a way to fix this, but not as you suggest. The BIOS was corrupted/erased, so cutting it's power wouldn't work. One would need to replace the BIOS chip, or reprogram the BIOS chip. Some modern motherboards (not ones in the past though) also have two BIOSes, or backups now to protect from this sort of thing though.

[@38911bytefree]

CMOS stores the BIOS configuration and RTC. The actual Bios is non volatile memory, you can take the battery out and wont erase. Just default your config and date time

[@Flux3on]

Happy 10th anniversary to this video!!!

[@Blazeoo]

Chernobyl: *Is on fire* KZbin: Wanna see virus called haha *CHERNOBYL* Me: Sure m8

[@spinalcord4529]

1990: i'm inevitable 2019: and i am chrome

[@windowsxp5727]

20th Century: Rip your computer my dude 21st Century: Give me money or your computer is mine

[@renakunisaki]

19th Century: what's a computer?

[@LordThanathos]

Dunno why KZbin recommended me this 8 years later, but it was right: I had heard about virii that overwrote the BIOS but had never seen it in action before. Thank you very much.

[@JeffSyam]

4:33 It turns out quite a lot in where I went to college. In mid-1998, luckily I have switched to RedHat 5 a few months prior to "outbreak" (reluctantly due to the thesis works and of course losing a lot of gaming ability - in which actually good when you're focusing on the thesis). But a lot of friends weren't so lucky, like what happened here, their MBs & HDDs were toasted,... together with their thesis script,...

[@utley]

Internet Explorer: the one piece of malware you can never get rid of...unless you run Linux.

[@WackyH]

or mac or some gnu thing

[@rx500android]

I keep watching this video over and over and I never get bored

[@atomic7196]

If you combine Espacio with this, you can make CIH more of a nightmare.

[@zzcolby27]

+Final Atomic Buster your profile pic fits the comment

[@chunkydurango7841]

The Gamma Dude how does that glitch cause the console to ignite..?

[@themole4534]

+brandon botezatu It does not, it's a myth.

[@SusieFanK]

"You didn't see the CIH virus at April 26" "I do" "YOU DIDN'T! BECAUSE IT'S NOT THERE!!"

[@RandomGuy37]

In April this video will be 10 years old. It feels like yesterday when I first watched it and it was just a couple of years old. Time goes so fast.

[@AvinashRaj]

You should have warn in the beginning of the video "Please don't try this at home."

[@fireryfists]

I doubt many people have windows 95 sitting at their homes, especially a version that isn't up to date. Unless you somehow found a version of Windows 95 that hasn't been updated in the top of your attic, that means you either went out of your way to buy one just to do this in which case you deserve it, or you used a virtual machine software to where your pc would be safe anyway.

[@enderjed2523]

@@fireryfists I found a MAC OS 8.7 laptop and a random graphics MS-DOS program in my attic.

[@Molotokk]

Я помню, схватил его, но удалось сбросить биос т.к. биос был запаролен. Это и выручило.

[@copmidsize]

Еее, русский

[@Molotokk]

@@copmidsize Даааа!

[@arkivis]

теперь ясно зачем пароль на биос

[@Molotokk]

@@arkivis Нынче стало опаснее ставить на биос пароль. Раньше достаточно было вынуть на 5 минут батарейку и пароль сброшен, теперь везде ставят энергонезависимую память и, если забыл, даже не знаю как быть, не сталкивался. Что бы сбросить, нужно зайти в биос, а если не зайти будет??? Леново класно на ноутах решил эту проблему, выведена отдельная кнопка, вирус физически не сможет её нажать :-) Лучше бы не пригодилось.😷

[@Airmode9000]

А где схватили?

[@tayfuntuna]

That moment when there is not a single thing on the black screen. Man. Imagine this happening in your childhood, on a new computer that your father bought for you.

[@kurtcobain9978]

People: So How Is Your Job? danooct1: Aah=

[@jhunered6236]

Wow! That's some helluva virus you got there. :) But... will it blend?

[@wavy03]

jhunered That is the question.

[@7_years_and_]

I don't know why I feel so happy to see the old computer screen .

[@AntonReacts-ww4tf]

Almost 10 years ago? Man times ticks by so fast

[@gdeech]

Dude the intro sounds like a zombie apocalypse Lol

[@AJtheprogrammer]

Said no one ever.

[@myusernameistaken23]

***** You sound like a fucking nerd

[@AJtheprogrammer]

***** Oh the irony (Do you know what "fuck" means?)

[@ajesbayes9057]

Said no one ever is the new Not!

[@myusernameistaken23]

***** Fuck: Something you can only do with your hand cause you're a fucking nerd

[@WickerBasket9]

KZbin recommendations led me to here. You and Vinesauce Joel make my night!

[@maddiwulfe]

rest in peace, computer, we will remember you :'(

[@vexanval]

When a nuclear reactor in your P.C. didn't explode. *They got us in the first half not gonna lie*

[@khaosstrifeoffical]

I've dealt with this bug before, to include a hybrid that I built based off of this virus (for testing purposes I assure you). Depending on your BIOS, most times you will need to pull the chip and replace it (desolder/solder a new one onto the board) and you will need to sanitize your hard drive. I have found though that, sometimes if you pull the CMOS battery and discharge the residual power from the board you can get the system to boot. However the POST will normally toss out garbage on the screen and the BIOS will be all jacked up as well. Not a fun bug to deal with.

[@SarCleric]

В 90-е перепрошивка bios делалась методом хот свопа на другой живой мат. плате. А так, как выбор плат тогда был не так богат, как сейчас, найти донора bios можно было даже без всякого интернета

[@stgigamovement]

Today is the 20th exact anniversary of CIH, including the fact that today is also Thursday, April 26, on a year ending on 8.

[@Xirru]

These old videos had been popping up on my recommendations lately. Tis 2020 alpurwasdy

[@julerobb1]

I presume that if you reflash the bios it's possible to recover this. Actually came across this with some older machines that originally ran Vista and I reflased their bios. Obviously in the 90s and in the early 2000s we didn't have reflashable bios.