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'Friendly' Worms Could Spread Software Fixes

Posted by Zonk on from the perfect-way-to-make-a-rogue-ai dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft researchers are working out the perfect strategies for worms to spread through networks. Their goal is to distribute software patches and other friendly information via virus, reducing load on servers. This raises the prospect of worm races — deploying a whitehat worm to spread a fix faster than a new attacking worm can reach vulnerable machines."

7 of 306 comments (clear)

  1. A viral implementation of Windows Update? by lawaetf1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "A friendly worm updated your computer which required a reboot."

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  2. Re:Prior Art by deadzaphod · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Very, very old idea. The first worm of this type was called "Reaper" and was created to kill the "Creeper" worm. http://www.viruslist.com/en/viruses/encyclopedia?chapter=153310937

  3. Re:Prior Art by verbalcontract · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is a very old idea. One of the earliest worm/viruses was actually of the "white-hat" variety. Nothing to see here, move along.

    DUH. That's why my Norton Antivirus lights up when I click on those helpful "GET RID OF SPYWARE" ads?

  4. I can hear it already... by TheUni · · Score: 5, Funny

    Customer: Something's wrong, my computer's not acting right.
    Tier1 Customer Support: Ok sir, I'd be happy to help you with that. Firstly, do you have the latest Microsoft Virus(tm) installed?
    Customer: Yes.
    Tier1 Customer Support: OK, do you have an Antivirus installed?
    Customer: Yes.
    Tier1 Customer Support: Ah, that's the problem. You'll need to remove the Antivirus in order for the Virus to function correctly. It's not safe these days to be running without the latest Virii!

  5. Re:Annnndddd... by sm62704 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How many people went to prison for the Sony XCP rootkit?

    That's right, none. There's your clue.

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  6. Re:Prior Art by nmb3000 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Very, very old idea.

    And still being used occasionally. The most recent one I recall is Welchia which used the same RPC exploit as Blaster but tried to help the user by installing patches to prevent further use of the exploit.

    It's an interesting idea, but still causes some of the big collateral problems that worms cause. Welchia brought university and corporate networks to their knees because of high traffic just as well as Blaster did - perhaps even moreso since it was also doing a lot of HTTP requests to Microsoft's servers. I think a better solution would be a more surefire way to make sure users get patched when such a critical vulnerability is found. That's the ironic part of the Blaster/Welchia RPC exploit, there was a patch available for months before the worm was released.

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  7. Re:Prior Art by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 5, Funny

    If they learn how to program from us, we'll be fine.

    We can survive salt water, high EMP fields, and power outages. A computer can't handle carpet.

    My money's always going to be on the meatbags.

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