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EICAR test file
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== Design == The file is a [[text file]] of between 68 and 128 [[byte]]s<ref>{{cite web |last1=Willems |first1=Eddy |title=The Winds of Change: Updates to the EICAR Test File |url=https://www.virusbulletin.com/uploads/pdf/magazine/2003/200306.pdf |website=[[Virus Bulletin]] |date=June 2003}}</ref> that is a legitimate [[COM file|.com]] [[executable]] file (plain [[x86]] [[machine code]]) that can be run by [[MS-DOS]], some work-alikes, and its successors [[OS/2]] and [[Windows]] (except for 64-bit due to 16-bit limitations). The EICAR test file will print "EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!" when executed and then will stop. The test string was written by anti-virus researchers [[Padgett Peterson]] and Paul Ducklin and [[Alphanumeric shellcode|engineered]] to consist of [[ASCII]] human-readable characters, easily created using a standard computer keyboard.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Willems |first1=Eddy |title=EICAR's Test File History |url=https://www.eicar.org/files/01_-_eicar_test_file_history.pdf |website=Eicar {{ndash}} European Expert Group for IT{{ndash}}Security |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151216140407/https://www.eicar.org/files/01_-_eicar_test_file_history.pdf |access-date=9 May 2020|archive-date=2015-12-16 }}</ref> It makes use of [[self-modifying code]] to work around technical issues that this constraint imposes on the execution of the test string.<ref>{{cite web |title=Anatomy of the EICAR Antivirus Test File. |url=https://blog.nintechnet.com/anatomy-of-the-eicar-antivirus-test-file/ |website=NinTechNet's updates and security announcements.|date=26 August 2021 }}</ref> The EICAR test string<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://secure.eicar.org/eicar.com.txt|title=EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE |access-date=July 21, 2019 }}</ref> reads<ref>{{cite web |title=Virus Profile: EICAR test file |url=https://home.mcafee.com/VirusInfo/VirusProfile.aspx?key=98616 |website=[[McAfee]] |access-date=9 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090205210908/https://home.mcafee.com/VirusInfo/VirusProfile.aspx?key=98616 |archive-date=2009-02-05 |url-status=dead }}</ref> {{EICAR test file}} The third character is the capital 'O' in the [[Latin alphabet]], not the digit zero.
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