Virus Creation Laboratory
The Virus Creation Laboratory, or VCL, as it is known, was one of the earliest attempts to provide a virus creation tool so that individuals with little to no programming expertise could mass-create computer viruses. VCL required a password for access, which was widely published alongside VCL. The password was "Chiba City", a likely reference to the William Gibson novel "Neuromancer."
.png.webp) VCL Title Screen in Windows Vista | |
| Developer(s) | Nowhere Man |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 1.0
/ July 5, 1992 |
| Operating system | MS-DOS |
| Type | Virus creation |
| License | Freeware |
A hacker dubbed "Nowhere Man", of the NuKE hacker group, released it in July 1992.
However, it was later discovered that viruses created with the Virus Creation Laboratory were often ineffective, as many anti-virus programs of the day caught them easily. Also, many viruses created by the program did not work at all - and often, their source codes could not be compiled. Due to a limited feature set and bugs, the Virus Creation Laboratory did not become popular with virus writers, who preferred to write their own.