Answer:
Assuming your talking about a computer virus(because your under the Computers and Technology section)
Also assuming you meant "What is a distinctive characteristic of a virus or virus family."
A computer virus is a software that was created with the intent of damaging a computer. Computer viruses can replicate them selves by modifying other software on the computer. Viruses such as file infectors can override the machine code of another application and inject its own malicious machine code to perform malicious acts. This is especially dangerous for the OS as the virus can override essential files.
Step-by-step explanation: