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Stuxnet Analysis Backs Iran-Israel Connection
Trailrunner7 writes "Liam O'Murchu of Symantec, speaking at the Virus Bulletin Conference, provided the first detailed public analysis of the worm's inner workings to an audience of some of the world's top computer virus experts. O'Murchu described a sophisticated and highly targeted virus and demonstrated a proof of concept exploit that showed how the virus could cause machines using infected PLCs to run out of control. Though most of the conversation about Stuxnet is still based on conjecture, O'Murchu said that Symantec's analysis of Stuxnet's code for manipulating PLCs on industrial control systems by Siemens backs up both the speculation that Iran was the intended target and that Israel was the possible source of the virus. O'Murchu noted that researchers had uncovered the reference to an obscure date in the worm's code, May 9, 1979, which, he noted, was the date on which a prominent Iranian Jew, Habib Elghanian, was executed by the new Islamic government shortly after the revolution. Anti-virus experts said O'Murchu's hypothesis about the origins of Stuxnet were plausible, though some continue to wonder how the authors of such a sophisticated piece of malware allowed it to break into the wild and attract attention."
Symantec has also issued a lengthy and detailed dossier on Stuxnet (PDF).
So the entire idea of the "Israel created this to attack Iran" idea is based on finding the date May 9, 1979 hidden in the code - and that because it's the first day the current theocratic asshats running Iran beheaded the first Jew of their despotic regime? Really?
This is like playing Nostradamus. Pluck something vague, go hunting, and see what you can say later to claim you "predicted it." For instance, in Eastern bloc countries, May 9 1945 is "Victory Day." I'm sure some prominent politician somewhere in there also died on May 9, 1979. A google search for that date came back with 196,000 results just on the precise phrase "May 9, 1979".
Ridiculous.
They were smart enough to write and deploy a complex virus, but stupid enough to include a reference to an obscure execution date of a prominent Iranian Jew; the first .Google hit conveniently pointing to the relevant Wikipedia entry. That screams red herring (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring_(idiom)), not proof.
-- Cave quid dicis, quando, et cui
Yeah, right. Israel creates this super-secret superworm, attacks Iran with it, after putting their fingerprints all over it just so that they will get caught by the first person to look at it in a text editor. All this knowing that it is going to infect the whole world and everybody is going to be coming after the authors with torches, pitchforks, and blood in their eye.
Of course, that explains it all.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Technical analysis aside, all these Israel claims are based on huge assumptions and zero concrete evidence. Even if Israel did create this virus why would they put references in the code that led back to them?
And it adds up. Besides the "date", admittedly a bit of a stretch as you note, there are also references to "Myrtus" within a path left in the code. Myrtus, a type of myrtle, is possibly a biblical reference to the Book of Esther (Esther was originally called Hadassah - similar to the Hebrew word for myrtle) in which Jewish forces, after unraveling a Persian attack plan, stage a preemptive and successful assault against their adversaries. There is also the level of knowledge required for the targeting of Stuxnet, including highly specific details about its intended target that would have required internal knowledge of the kind that is likely to require espionage to acquire. Finally, there is also a cut-off date of June 24, 2012 when Stuxnet will go dormant. While not unheard of in the world of more conventional botnets, this is decidedly unusual and further points to a nation state's involvement.
Taking all that together, I think it's fairly reasonable to limit the list of suspects to those countries with a reason to be wary of Iran's nuclear program - of which there are, admittedly, quite a few. However, Israel does have a track record for being decidedly unsubtle when it is being proactive about such things, viz the 2007 air raid on one of Syria's nuclear facilities, or the murder of Mahmoud_al-Mabhouh.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
Exactly. It shows how badly the people analyzing the worm would like it to tie it back to a super-secret Mossad operation. Talk about "confirmation bias"!
I don't understand how a person can respect hypocrisy. Why is it ok for Israel to have nukes, but not Iran? Why is it ok for them to attack their neighbors and when anyone else does it, it's a crime?
Your arguments sound and awfull lot like people who argue 9/11 was a government plot. Why do they argue this? Because they are afraid and can't deal with a world were a random group of individuals can do such a complex thing.
This is especially amazing as a story running at the same time is about the leaked Intel key. And of course the ongoing story of the PS3 being cracked.
Random individuals are a lot more resourceful then some people are willing to give them credit for. But blaming a shadow government for it is far easier to cope with because that means at least someone is in charge. In control.
Those "stolen" certificates also mean nothing. They get "leaked" all the time. Case in point, the Intel key, which was a LOT more valuable then the keys in this worm.
As for hackers knowing about Siemens... that is so easy and trivial to explain I hard find it worth the effort. But it is PUBLIC knowledge who supplies Iran with its tools. Export bans and all make sure everything has to be declared.
No, I look deeper and look at the fact this worm was so quickly discovered and so handily easily decoded with all these handy clues pointing to Iran's enemies. Mmm, a virus outbreak in Iran that nobody else notices, spreads uncontrollably yet then is near instantly dissected and points towards Iran's standard scape goats.
Gosh, how convenient.
Zero day exploits are a dime a dozen, smart people the same. This is just a worm that worked its magic in a mono-culture. The moment I start thinking "government conspiracy" is when someone reveals anything about the data transferred.
WHY would Israel do this? They got far better methods available. And they don't need to disable a windows PC of a nuclear reactor office workers. They got reliable aircraft to do that that send a far stronger message. They got plenty of experience with it.
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