Automatic code execution on Project load

[Götz Becker]

Hi all,

I recently found some interesting code at the german labviewforum.de.

Basically it looks like a not so funny prank.

LV-Chat

The included project starts an embedded VI after opening the .lvproj.

Warning:

I am not 100% sure if this is all harmless. As far as I can tell it displays some dialog boxes, writes a virus test pattern and opens notepad.exe with a temp file.

My current guess is, that the combination of a Xcontrol and the way LV loads lvclasses leads to the execution of the Init ability at load time.

I tried to copy the concept in the attached file xcontrol+lvclass.zip. But the Init.vi in my project doesn´t get executed before I manually open a VI that uses the XControl (this is of course the expected behavior).

Anyone has an idea what else is necessary to get this auto-execution at load time?

[ShaunR]

Can't wait for the JKI Virus Scanner

[Götz Becker]

Hi again,

after random edits to my nutshell I finally got one version that runs the Init.vi at project load.

Still I haven't found what triggers the execution. I guess I have to invest more time to get behind the logic.

xcontrol+lvclass_v2.zip (LV2010)

[MikaelH]

It's the X-Control's INIT function that opens the VI and runs it.

//Mikael

[Götz Becker]

Very strange... I just tested both versions on a different machine and now both show the auto-execution. My first version didn't show the behaviour at my home machine.

[jcarmody]

Am I wrong to be scared?

[Götz Becker]

I was very scared as I opened the Chat project the first time.

The possible usage for distribution malicious code is really scary. On the other side, automatic launching of some helper VIs when I open a project might be a nice feature (e.g. forced update file state when working on a slow connection to a Perforce server, where LV-SCC integration is sometimes just unusable)

Thats why I want to understand how this works and what the load triggers are.

After I saved all VIs in the nutshell (they were not flagged as recompiled/edited) the auto-execution did stop in my machine at work. The .lvclass and .lvproj files didn't change, the VIs of course did.