Worms Could Dodge Net traps

Danse writes "ZDNet reports that future worms could evade a network of early-warning sensors hidden across the Internet unless countermeasures are taken. According to papers presented at the Usenix Security Symposium, just as surveillance cameras are sometimes hidden the locations of the Internet sensors are kept secret. From the article: 'If the set of sensors is known, a malicious attacker could avoid the sensors entirely or could overwhelm the sensors with errant data.' A team of computer scientists from the University of Wisconsin wrote up the background in their award-winning paper titled 'Mapping Internet Sensors with Probe Response Attacks.'"

Comments

Conclusion = obvious

[rritterson]

Duh! Of course you can slowly figure out how a security system works, and then work around it. See any famous and/or talented thief for such an example. The real threat, I suppose, is that these worms can do it automatically and on a larger scale.

Solution: Don't open holes and then fill them with trip wires. Just fill up the hole (via patch or otherwise) in the first place.

Re:Conclusion = obvious

[aussie_a]

You obviously seem to have all the answers, why don't you go and code these magic patches for them?

Security isn't easy, and fixing holes with patches isn't easy. It takes time, skill and money. Placing a trip wire as a stop-gap measure is helpful, especially if the hole takes years to fix (without creating more holes).

If you can do better, then by all means do so. But the security war will never be won by those securing the systems.

I wonder how long before...

[Biomechanical]

...We have roving Intrusion Countermeasures (Or IC) inside our system. Not just passive measures, but semi-autonomous active measures.

We already have a form of White IC - simple detection, non-aggressive measures. How long before we have more active Grey IC - Tar Babies (similar to today's honey pots), Tar Pits, Blaster - and ultimately, Black IC - seeking out the source of the intrusion and in turn, destroying the origin of attack?

Would a big, multi-national corporation get punished for "accidentally" frying the computer of someone who was thought to be intruding into the corporation's computers? I seriously doubt it.

That is to be expected

[jurt1235]

A biological virus adapts to its environment too, a worm too, so why would the digital variant not adapt. And since the main platform clearly suffers from an immune deficiency syndrom, just kept alive by their doctors and creators by means which are always to late to stop the newest infection but just on time to save most patients, it is pretty easy for the virusses to stay alive, and adapt to a point where the immune system will completely fail.

Or alternatively

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Could certain software companies start spewing out secure software, so worms don't have much of a chance to exist in the first place?

The number of companies getting fat over those needless insecurities is just gross...