Multipartite virus

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A multipartite virus is a computer virus that infects multiple different target platforms, and remains recursively infective in each target. The term was coined to describe the first viruses that included DOS file and PC BIOS boot sector virus code, where both parts are viral themselves. For a complete cleanup, all parts of the virus must be removed. The term was coined, as prior to the discovery of the first of these, viruses were categorized as either file infectors or boot infectors.

Ghostball was the first multipartite virus, discovered by Fridrik Skulason in October 1989.

[edit] See also

• Timeline of notable computer viruses and worms