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Researchers Say Flame and Stuxnet Share Common Authors
Trailrunner7 writes "Researchers digging through the code of the recently discovered Flame worm say they have come across a wealth of evidence that suggests Flame and the now-famous Stuxnet worm share a common origin. Researchers from Kaspersky Lab say that a critical module that the Flame worm used to spread is identical to a module used by Stuxnet.a, an early variant of the Stuxnet worm that began circulating in 2009, more than a year before a later variant of the worm was discovered by antivirus researchers at the Belarussian firm VirusBlokAda. The claims are the most direct, to date, that link the Flame malware, which attacked Iranian oil facilities, with Stuxnet, which is believed to have targeted Iran's uranium-enrichment facility at Natanz. If true, they suggest a widespread and multi-year campaign of offensive cyber attacks against multiple targets within that country."
If true, they suggest a widespread and multi-year campaign of offensive cyber attacks against multiple targets within that country
What's next, researchers discovering that the recent spate of assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists are SOMEHOW connected?
Anyone who hasn't realized (or *claims* not to have realized) by now that there has been an elaborate, multi-year shadow war by the CIA/Mossad trying to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program is either willfully-blind, retarded, or a shill. Christ, Mossad and the CIA barely even bother to *HIDE* it anymore. Everyone in their right mind knew what was really going on the second Stuxnet was dissected. And they certainly realized it the first time mysterious guys on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to the car of a guy who just happened to also be a prominent nuclear scientist in Iran.
Of course, some willfully-blind, retarded shill out there is going to reply to this and say that those scientists killed themselves and that Stuxnet and Flame were actually created by Iran in an incredibly convoluted attempt to gain world sympathy. Such is true delusion.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Based on an anagram of "Flame and Stuxnet", I expect the next target to be Mexico's banking sector: Tamale Funds Next.
...between germ warfare and malware warfare is that the anthrax bombs tested out in Scotland never affected areas outside the impact crater and it costs a lot to genetically modify a bacterium.
In contrast, most of the world's true psychopaths have access to coders capable of modifying Stuxnet or Flame to do things never intended by the original author, and both have been found globally.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Could it be an entity with a TLA?
They shouldn't be wasting time on deciphering the virus.
Just wait a few more months and the Obama Administration will leak the details
They all copied the code from Oracle. They'd better be prepared for a huge fine or a sales ban.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
Crowdleaks is claiming to have decompiled the Stuxnet source code - albeit quite awhile after Flame is said to have been found in the wild.
It seems that a lot of people are trying to pin Stuxnet firmly on the US Government, current administration. So far it seems to be mostly "unnamed knowledgable sources" which could be BS - but things could get more credible.
At some point our friends in Iran are likely to decide that Stuxnet cost them millions of dollars and years of work and the US is responsible. If, or when, they come to this conclusion I would expect something quite overt from Iran to show up. Possibly as a retalitory cyber attack, possibly something as crude as blowing up a few buildings full of people. Something that is assured to cost the US more than a few million dollars. Obviously there is very little that can be done to stop such an attack - especially if it came in the form of something like Weather Bug with people clamoring to figure out how to install it in spite of what ever controls, warning and blocks put in their way. Ever seen someone in a business with all locked-down users (no Admin rights) call the help desk to ask if they could have someone install Weather Bug for them? Yeah, like that.
My guess is that the US isn't backpedaling fast enough to convince the world that it isn't responsible for Stuxnet... so I'd expect retaliation before the end of the year. What would be the point of doing it to a lame-duck president? So probably before November. Of course Iran might decide that Obama is preferrable to Romney and wait until after the election assuming (rightly so) that a successful attack would bring down the government.
I'm not actually much concerned about Iran's nuclear program. Deterrence and MAD actually worked pretty well during the Cold War, and if Iran had nukes (which there isn't any evidence they are actually developing, but there's just enough of a hint of that to have some possible deterrent effect) the chance of Israel launching a war of aggression would be less.
But it scares the shit out of me to think that Iran is running WINDOWS on sensitive installations, for Uranium processing (even for reactors it is not exactly *safe* material) or other important security/safety functions. If this stupidity exists elsewhere in the world, we live in a VERY SCARY world (like most of the people in the world, probably, I don't live that many miles from a nuclear plant).
Buy Text Processing in Python
They keep plugging these systems into the internet.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Isn't anybody else besides Kaspersky discovering these things? On the one hand, it is in their best interest to find out as much as they can about this new kind of virus. On the other hand, I get a bit nervous when there appears to be only 1 source for information.
As noble as the underlying motives might be, I simply find it hard to believe that bullying souvereign nation states or their governments can have positive net effects in the long turn.
teabaggers stopped the "but, but, but Clinton" blather as soon as they figured out that they could blame a minority for all of their troubles. I take it you haven't been watching your daily indoctrination from Fox.
A primary focus for Bill Gates in years just prior to his retirement: Windows vulnerabilities. Bill Gates retired from Microsoft in June 2008 at the ripe old age of 52. Stuxnet and Flame were released shortly afterward. What did he know and when did he know it?
The connection between Duqu and Stuxnet is still dubious for the same reason as this one: code re-use does not mean common authorship. Kaspersky is completely out on a limb (still) with the last Duqu-Stuxnet connection, and this one is total conjecture.
Vague connection from the use of the similar tools for similar kinds of attack? Yeah.
Common code? Some.
Common aims? No.
Common targets? No, only a possible regional commonality.
Common skills in development? No.
Common timelines? No.
Same developers? Hardly.
Same operators? Are you high?
This is what we're paying the CIA for.
If the possibility existed and they didn't take advantage of it, then they'd wouldn't be doing their duty.
I take this as a rare sign that our guys are actually taking care of what needs to be done regardless of whatever manufactured distraction the politicians blather on about.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Man... how awesome was this picture for the meme world? He's going all "Prometheus" on that side of a dock!
Thank you to the news staffers who decided to insert that image!
You don't believe that Jayzus caused Stuxnet to spontaneously generate in the bowels of the intarwebs because Jehova 1 didn't want Iran nuking his chosen people?
You probably also don't believe that the matrix has become sentient and is using stuxnet to communicate with the space aliens.
What a sad, gray world you inhabit.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I simply find it hard to believe that bullying souvereign nation states or their governments can have positive net effects in the long turn.
But
Bananas are an excellent source of vitamin B6, soluble fiber, and contain moderate amounts of vitamin C, manganese and potassium.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff