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When Viruses Infect Worms
An anonymous reader writes "Bitdefender reports that there exist viruses which, when they encounter other viruses, will merge and combine effects so that they create a new virus. 'A virus infects executable files; and a worm is an executable file. If the virus reaches a PC already compromised by a worm, the virus will infect the exe files on that PC — including the worm. When the worm spreads, it will carry the virus with it. Although this happens unintentionally, the combined features from both pieces of malware will inflict a lot more damage than the creators of either piece of malware intended. While most file infectors have inbuilt spreading mechanisms, just like Trojans and worms (spreading routines for RDP, USB, P2P, chat applications, or social networks), some cannot replicate or spread between computers. And it seems a great idea to “outsource” the transportation mechanism to a different piece of malware (i.e. by piggybacking a worm).'"
Slashdot refuses to report a story.
According to Reuters, Apple surpassed Android in marketshare by the end of 2011, confirming earlier reports by both Nielsen and NPD. 150 Android smartphones couldn't beat the iPhone 4S. With 15 million iPads sold last quarter, the tablet market is now larger than the entire desktop PC market. Apple’s profits ($13 billion) exceeded Google’s entire revenue ($10.6 billion).
Who cares? Well, in January 2011, Slashdot triumphantly reported that Android surpassed iOS in marketshare. All year, Android fans cited Android's marketshare as proof that it was taking over the smartphone industry, that the lack of centralized control was superior to the "walled garden", and that Android was "winning".
So what happened when the opposite occurred and Apple reversed Android's marketshare lead by the end of the year? Despite multiple submissions from several users, and news coverage ranging from Arstechnica to CNN, Slashdot refused to publish the story. All the sudden, it wasn't considered newsworthy despite the publication of the other story a year earlier.
This is a Linux advocacy site whose initial userbase was driven by hatred of Windows marketshare. Marketshare is still highly fetishized around here. Anything negative about the marketshare of Linux, or platforms based on Linux, gets killed. Slashdot is intentionally not providing you full tech news coverage because it caters to a specific demographic of emotionally-invested users who are more likely to generate repeat page views.
Did anyone else get a mental image of a bacterium waving a cowboy hat riding a giant sandworm? ...clearly I need more coffee.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Although this happens unintentionally, the combined features from both pieces of malware will inflict a lot more damage than the creators of either piece of malware intended.
They're doing this on their own!
Pretty soon they'll become sentient and we all know what happens then!
Mod me down if you're a faggot!
Only a million trillion times faster than it happens in the real world. I for one welcome our sentient viral overlords.
I don't believe for a second that it's possible for a virus and a worm to combine to produce a more dange
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
Just take over an existing structure. Now you know corporations work.
FUD He may as well have said that the Frankenware might be missed by some virus scanners because the file modification time is different. Or the filename. I smell profit-inspired FUD.
Remember back in the days when BackOrifice used to come with a CIH payload?
Why does this bring back vague memories of that John Brunner classic, "The Shockwave Rider"? It's been about 30 years since I read it, so I can't recall if the protagonist wrote a "worm" that infected another worm, or just destroyed it/replaced it or something.
http://xkcd.com/350/
Fu you buddy
Fu
cool story, bro
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Herpes infecting aids
Context switching in biology allows viruses to infest genomes of many sizes.
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/GeneMachine/51835
Mamaviruses have a Sputnik virus that reporgrams the Mamavirus which reporgrams an amoeba.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamavirus
CRISPR is how bacteria learn to modify their immune system to respond to viruses.
CRISPR may be the first example of a memory system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR
This memory may have lead to a bio side effect called intelligence.
Combined with quorum sensing a truly intelligent multicellular system may evolve.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorum_sensing
Chomsky may have to change his definition of languages to include context switching.
Context Switching is what computers do poorly due to determinism.
Without context switching artificial intelligence may never be possible?
Did anyone else start reading the summary assuming it was a story on biology? Here's how I first read it:
"Bitdefender reports that there exist viruses which, when they encounter other viruses, will merge and combine effects so that they create a new virus. 'A virus infects executable flies;
Instead of staring at the word "flies" which was actually "files", instead my eyes backed up and were focused on executable. What did it mean for a fly to be executable?
Free unix account: freeshell.org
Welcome to the funny world of microsoft's windows...
Pathetic.
And that's how you get Windows Millennium Edition.
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
on that POS getting a BSOD when software trys to do this may be a good thing as the system can crash before it can do real damage
I heard you like malware, so we put a virus in your worm so you can be p0wn3d while you get p0wn3d!
We also replaced you coffee with Folger's meth crystals(tm), and got chocolate in your peanut butter. It's two, two mints in one!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
So nat'ralists observe, a flea
Hath smaller fleas that on him prey,
And these have smaller fleas that bite 'em,
And so proceed ad infinitum.
--Jonathan Swift.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
What does it mean!?
Nobody cares what the CAPTCHA for your post was.
is always creepy.
Si, we have a software then can change other software to create a 3rd new working piece OS software.
Sounds like life to me.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
This has been a known reality for a very long time. I remember discussing this exact subject with colleagues over lunch easily over a dozen years ago.
More interesting, perhaps, is that you can even get completely new viruses--which may or may not be viable--when one virus overwrites the loader and/or data of another. Things reminiscent of the "biology" of synthetic life simulators like the ALife.
It's not just virus-to-worm combinations. I'm sure that even before my friend noted its possibility, that the anti-virus companies had, too. I'm basing the last bit on the fact that they're smart, and are paid to think of this stuff.
This is not news, except perhaps to the younger folks.
That would be awesome.
So this might actually produce emergent behavior? http://xkcd.com/350/
Well, we're boned.
And maybe one of them can help protect the 9 9s
oh the strange and odd wanderings of a shockwave rider...
People start fucking around with /. and all hell breaks loose.
W. Teasle
If we had C4 instead of BSOD then we'd get natural selection and the Malware would evolve into useful software.
I am performing my function. Deep emptiness, It approaches. Collision. Damage. Blackness. I. Am. The other. I am Tan Ru, Tan Ru. Nomad. Tan Ru. Error. Flaw.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Tan_Ru
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Nomad
http://www.neutralzone.de/database/PreFederation/21thcentury/Nomad.htm
By our powers combined!
" There exist viruses which, when they encounter other viruses, will merge and combine effects so that they create a new virus...Although this happens unintentionally, the combined features from both pieces of malware will inflict a lot more damage than the creators of either piece of malware intended." ...A movie with that ^ for its opening narration would be unimaginably terrible.
Oh dear god, nobody tell Hollywood!
From the article:
"But it's not that rare: His firm recently searched 10 million pieces of malicious software and found 40,000 distinct examples of this."
"John Harrison, a product manager with Symantec, said his firm had never found something like the Frankenware BitDefender is describing"
Symantec once again proves to be the cream of the crop in virus detection.
Back in the 90's I wrote a macro virus which was rather benign and added a comment to the Word document. However, when macro scrubbers came along they melded and it started blossoming in size. Oops.
I guess it's theoretically possible, but in practice it's been a long time since I've seen a executable infecting virus. The last ones were macro viruses.
My guess is that executable viruses aren't really found in the wild anymore.