Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Researchers Say Flame and Stuxnet Share Common Authors

Posted by samzenpus on from the who's-to-blame? dept.

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."

10 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Yeah, no shit by crazyjj · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?
    1. Re:Yeah, no shit by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Funny

      Christ, Mossad and the CIA barely even bother to *HIDE* it anymore

      Wait. What?

      OK, the CIA and Mossad I get. Fine. That's what they do.

      But Jesus?

      What's he doing getting into electronic warfare? I thought he was supposed to be a nice guy, turn the other cheek and all that?

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re:Yeah, no shit by jandrese · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I don't think there are too many people who are overly skeptical of who made Stuxnet and Flame. The primary arguments seemed to be "Israel or the US, or Israel AND the US?" It seems pretty clear that both of these were a backdoor solution to a problem they felt could not be solved by diplomatic or economic means. Nuclear nonproliferation is something the world as a whole has been very bad at in the past, this could be one of the few success stories.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    3. Re:Yeah, no shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      OP was referring to the young brother Jeezus Christ, not the better known Jesus H. Christ.

      Jesus vs. Jeezus.

    4. Re:Yeah, no shit by jandrese · · Score: 3, Informative

      Slowing them down is more than the UN, NATO, economic sanctions, political posturing, or anything else has done. Slow down the program enough and maybe there will be time for political reform to bubble up from the bottom. The last elections in Iran drew a lot of anger from the populace, we can only hope that the latent anger eventually boils over and goes full Egypt given enough time. Direct military intervention (regime change) is just not practical, so you do what you can. Anything we can do to hold back the day when Jerusalem is a radioactive crater is a win in my book. Sure it's possible, and maybe even likely, that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was just blowing smoke with his promises to wipe Israel off of the map, but it's a big gamble when you're talking about the lives of 7.5 million people are on the line.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    5. Re:Yeah, no shit by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Informative

      Didn't the US do this to the Soviets during the cold war too? Something embedded into the hardware sold to the Russians that messed up a factory or plant for nuclear power/weapons?

      Supposedly the CIA put a bug in some gas pipeline SCADA software that caused a major explosion in Siberia. There is some doubt about whether this really happened. More info here: Siberian Pipeline Sabotage.

    6. Re:Yeah, no shit by LordLimecat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ignorance abounds. If turn the other cheek was an expression of defiance, what about the immediately following verse of giving your cloak too?

  2. Re:Obviously by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Funny

    They all copied the code from Oracle. They'd better be prepared for a huge fine or a sales ban.

    No they didn't. Stuxnet and Flame actually work.

    QED.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  3. Re:The really scary thing by cpu6502 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    To describe 10 million Iranians as "insane" smacks of anti-persian racism. It's the same kind of nonsense people said about blacks during WW2 ("They are not sane or intelligent enough to handle big equipment like tanks or planes.").

    --
    My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
  4. Kaspersky by FlynnMP3 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.