"Good" worm?

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ph0bYx
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"Good" worm?

Post by ph0bYx »

I've read that the Conficker worm has infected about 12mil. computers over the world creating a massive botnet, now my question is why doesn't some make a "good" worm? A worm that spreads like the conficker, but instead of exploiting the vulnerability, try to fix it and kill the conficker worm.
Is it possible to make a worm or a few different worms (different by the method of spreading) that fixes the vulnerability, like a patch-worm, a cure-worm?
They've released a patch for the conficker vulnerability, but no one seems to do anything about the 12mil botnet...

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7A69
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Post by 7A69 »

Your not the only one wondering that.

http://www.suck-oold.com/modules.php?na ... pic&t=5138

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Post by Insection »

Its possible, but it would be kinda stupid no?

Spreading worms to cure worms... :lol:

Einstein: Make things simple but not simpler

Just use an antivirus or spyware, that'll do the job

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Post by ph0bYx »

Stupid or not, I think it's kinda cool. That would give a chance to the good hackers (white hat, gray hat, whatever you want to call them) to experience writing worms :)

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Post by 7A69 »

Yeah i though too that it would be kinda cool to have a hacking group which would seek internet for viruses, download them, analyze their way of spreading and then code new one which would spread the same way and delete the original virus and itself. You could code viruses all day long and still have good conscience. :roll:

But after all the good worm would be just like av software except that avs spread voluntarily which may actually be even more efficient.

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ph0bYx
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Post by ph0bYx »

Well, if av's are that good, then it wouldn't be infections. There are ignorant people that use bad AVs or non at all and download everything that pops up. It would be a kind of charity to write a good worm or two for them, but it wouldn't be effective for the ones who got lots of viruses on they machines, because writing a worm that cures all of them would be useless, it would be better to write pop-ups with links to some good AV downloads.

Another thing I had in mind is an educating worm. Something like a worm that after download and running it would display a window like:

Code: Select all

This could've been a very bad virus. It's obvious that you're ignorant enough to download this worm, so for your sakes this worm will educate you on securing your computer.
and then display a tutorial on computer security. Also the one who downloaded it would be able to do anything else than read the tutorial because the worm wouldn't allow any other activity for, lets say 6 hours or a day.

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Post by DNR »

the real issue is the definition of worms by the letter of the law.

it would be considered an unauthorized intrusion on a computer or network. Regardless of the payload, it will be considered an illegal act.

Also corporations losing money by bad business practices can blame you for their IT problems, unexplained crashes of their db's will be blamed on your worm. Who can say your worm didn't cause the crash and cost the corporations 'billions of dollars' in damages..

My japanese sensei once said "Don't get involved"

He meant well, he wanted me to focus on the more important things, than saving the world..
Save yourself and those close to you.

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Post by lilrofl »

I think what you are saying is interesting, and it's not the first time I've heard the argument, however if you write a program that replicates without permission, then you are essentially medicating the populace without consent... like water fluoridation all those years ago.

Good or bad, people will hate you for it, and it will become just another justification of why everything is wrong to begin with.

Or maybe I'm wrong and people will love the idea of someone else deciding whats best for them.

As for peoples sporadic use (or not as the case may be) of AV software, meh... I don't care if they use it or not. I got music from a friend once and it turned out he had a virus, so I told him and showed him how to clean it and gave him a point in the right direction for some software. Like three days later someone gave me a thumb drive which had the same virus on it, I giggled a bit and said, you got music from so and so didn't you... they were confused but agreed that they had.

Since that day I have seen that virus pop up on no less then thirty or so thumb drives, Ipods, digital cameras, even a digital camcorder lol the mind boggles. Last year it was brontok, this year its this VB infector.

I learned from it so I'm better for it.

I guess what I'm saying is that the opportunity to grow is all around us, and learning from other peoples mistakes is an important avenue of knowledge. What you suggest is not only leading the horse to water but also spoon feeding that poor bastard to DEATH with no regard to it's right to choose not to be thirsty in the first place. There will always be wolves and there will always be sheep and there will always be people who will pay me 20$ to remove nar32.vbs from their flash media... and if THAT's not enough animal references in one post for you...

I also like Pandas =)

again just my .02

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Post by ayu »

Well, I see it this way ...

That the "bad guys" are totally taking over the net by constructing hundreds of different kind of malicious codes each day, and the "good guys" are not taking up the fight due to ethical and legal issues. But I try to see it in a little "more" grey hat perspective, that we have to FORCE people to fix their damn computers, and fight the evil malware producers.

But of course, a virus like this has to be carefully tested and adapted to loads of different kind of situations before it can be "unleashed" (I know what I want to do this summer :lol: )
"The best place to hide a tree, is in a forest"

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Post by Still_Learning »

7A69 wrote:Your not the only one wondering that.

http://www.suck-oold.com/modules.php?na ... pic&t=5138
I dont have access to that link.
Gone

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Post by computathug »

Still_Learning wrote:
7A69 wrote:Your not the only one wondering that.

http://www.suck-oold.com/modules.php?na ... pic&t=5138
I dont have access to that link.
:-k link works for me

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Post by ph0bYx »

If no one would get involved then there wouldn't be white hats (that is if my understanding of the definition of "white hat" is correct: someone who hacks into a system and leaves a txt file or emails the admins what their vulnerability is and how to fix it, and that's the kind of hacking that I love)
Also the authors of that good worm would be fame seekers, at least they shouldn't be adding a name (or an address :D) to the worm just to get the credits. Authors should do it for their peace of mind, to have the (great) feeling of clearing the internet and doing something good.

I agree with lilrofl.
Nerdz wrote: Give a man a fish, you feed him for one day.
Learn a man to fish, you feed him for life.
That's why I think that the educational worm would be much better than the good worm, because when some ignorant people get infected with the good worm they won't be able to understand that that worm helps them, they'll just put him in the virus list (and when that lists hits ~10viruses they go the service and get it cleaned, pathetic but true.)

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