                        Portable VALIDATE
                           Version 1.0

Author: Gary P. Mussar (gmussar on BIX) 1991-01-05

Portable VALIDATE is a file authentication program which can be used to
check software for signs of tampering.  The program calculates two check
codes over the data in a file by using two different CRC algorithms.
The results can be checked against values provided by the author of the
tested file or a list of values provided by a reliable source.  One such
reliable source is the Computer Virus Industry Association which
maintains validation data for various shareware programs on-line.  The
CVIA bulletin board can be reached at (408) 988-4004.  The user needs to
perform the following steps when validating a program:

  - obtain the authentication numbers from a reliable source.
  - run Portable VALIDATE against the desired file.
  - compare the check codes produced by Portable VALIDATE against the
    reliable authentication numbers.

If the numbers match, the user can be reasonably assured that the file
or program has not been corrupted.

The original VALIDATE program was provided by McAfee Associates as an
executable module. This works great for IBM PCs and compatibles, however,
sysops of non IBM PC BBSs cannot use this module. The Portable VALIDATE
program was written so that sysops of these non-compatible BBSs could
do quick validations of files. The Portable VALIDATE uses the same CRC
algorithms as McAfee's VALIDATE and has been successfully run on a
number of platforms including:

  IBM PC (Turbo C++)
  Sun 3
  Sun SPARC
  Apollo

McAfee Associates can be reached at (408) 988-3832.

To run Portable VALIDATE, type:

   VALIDATE \path\filename.ext [\path\filename.ext]

The program will display the following validation information:

          File Name: (\path\filename.ext)
               Size: (Number of Bytes)
               Date: (File Creation Date)
File Authentication:
     Check Method 1 - (4 digit CRC)
     Check Method 2 - (4 digit CRC)

Portable VALIDATE has been released to the public domain in source code
form.  Please redistribute Portable VALIDATE in source code form with
this document.  The original release of Portable VALIDATE has been
archived with PKZIP authentication.  Extraction should produce the
following:

  Authentic files Verified!   # MYI675   Gary P. Mussar

If PKZIP authentication cannot be verified, the user should check the
source code (it is less than 250 lines of which 1/2 are comments).  The
user should then compile Portable VALIDATE and test it against known
good files to verify that the source code has not be compromised.

Please report virus infection and verified instances of tampering to:

        Computer Virus Industry Association
        4423 Cheeney Street
        Santa Clara, CA 95054
        (408) 727-4559
