Question

I was reading a article about a database programmer, who after learning he was about to be fired put six lines of code that would delete everything on the company's main computer, costing them millions and putting them out of business.

7/30/96
F:
F:\LOGIN\LOGIN 12345
CD \PUBLIC
FIX.EXE /Y F:\*.*
PURGE F:\ /ALL

Can someone tell me how this code works and what language it is programmed in? I assume SQL?

Was it helpful?

Solution

It's just some (DOS?) shell commands. The point of the example isn't how clever the code is. The exact opposite, actually: apparently anyone with basic knowledge of this company's systems, and a beginner's knowledge of the DOS shell, could have done this. (Notice in particular that their admin password was "12345".)

The example may as well be made up, and possibly is.

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