ANSI Bomb

What Does ANSI Bomb Mean?

An ANSI Bomb is a type of Trojan virus that reprograms certain keys (including function keys), making them display color and unwanted graphics by use of character sequencing. ANSI bombs connect themselves to the ANSI.SYS driver, which is usually associated with a text file or mail message. By initiating destructive commands, escape sequences redefine keys in this bomb process.

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Techopedia Explains ANSI Bomb

ANSI bombs have been around since 1996. Key commands, like “Enter”, also may malfunction, causing a system to crash. These types of Trojan viruses are not as harmful as other viruses because they typically do not launch to third-party systems.

An ANSI bomb can execute within ANSI systems, but the number of programs that require ANSI has reduced drastically. Current Windows versions no longer utilize ANSI terminal emulations.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…