Slashdot Mirror
First IA64 Windows Virus Released
NinjaPablo writes "W64.RugRat.3344 has been released as a proof of concept virus. It is the first virus which will only run on Windows on the IA64 platform, and uses APIs from 3 native DLLs to avoid crashing applications. It infects files that are in the same folder as the virus and in all subfolders. The author of the virus has also written other concept virii in the past."
This looks pretty oldschool... no stupid RPC nonsense or VBScript, it's a virus that infects other programs, and is spread by copying infected executables around. Just like the old days with MS-DOS viruses passed around on BBS's.
Incidentally, you could probably limit your vulnerability if the program was installed by an Administrator but only run by users without write permission, or if you removed write permission from programs that you run in your own folders.
The really cool thing is that it's written in IA64 assembly code. That sounds like quite an impressive feat. From what I hear that is far worse even than the PPC64 assembly code I usually write.
Linguistic evolution is an ongoing process which can 't be controlled by an "official" standard for a word. Virii is the next step in this evolution, like it or not. You should find a job with the Quebec language police...who enforce a variant of French that has many "incorrect" features in comparison to "real" French. Neither variants is less legitimate than the other, or Cajun French for that matter. I suppose Chaucer's English should still exist. It doesn't. Get over it.
"l33+5p34k" is not acceptable and should not carry over into the official language just because a bunch of basement dwelling morons think so.
You're right, there's no such word as "virii." There are also no such words as "boxen," "*nix," "sysadmin," "interweb," and "teevee." "Awesome" means "awe-inspiring," "cool" refers to a temperature, "radical" is what we call a nutjob, and, to my knowledge, no one has ever gotten "jiggy" with anything. Purists would even say that using "google" as a verb is wrong. These are the same people who had a problem with "surfing" the "web."
It's called slang, and it's evolving and changing all the time. Were these people to use "virii" in an official capacity, such as in a company-wide memo, or an academic paper, there would be a problem. But this is Slashdot, for crying out loud. Get over yourself and have a little fun.
W64.Rugrat is a fairly simple proof-of-concept virus. However, it is the first known virus to attack 64-bit Windows executables on IA64 systems intentionally, and it does so successfully. The virus uses a handful of Win64 API-s from 3 different libraries, NTDLL.DLL, SFC_OS.DLL and KERNEL32 respectively.
From NTDLL.DLL the viruses uses the following 3 functions LdrGetDllHandle(), RtlAddVectoredExceptionHandler() and RtlRemoveVectoredExceptionHandler(). The virus supports vectored exception handling to avoid crashing during infections.
Yes, the virus uses three DLLs. It also uses a routine to avoid crashing itself while infecting the machine... it does not look like the virus cares about crashing other applications.
The thing to pay attention to here is that this is a fault tolerant virus. I have seen more and more effort lately (Sasser for example avoids shutdowns to help it propagate) from authors trying to make their creation survive.
And why is it a shock that a virus can be written for either?
When palladium comes out and someone writes a virus that can escape it's sandbox, infect executables (which I'd imagine would involve resigning them) and spread, I'll be impressed.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Socially inept nerds making up (what they think to be) cool-sounding plural forms does not count as a valid step in the evolution of the English language. The plural for "virus" existed long before computers did, and there is absolutely no reason to change it when it refers to a computer virus. You can use the word "virii" if you want, but don't be surprised when people think that you're a fucking retard for doing so.