Comments on: Scary concept: Friendly worms http://www.mckeay.net/2008/02/15/scary-concept-friendly-worms/ The views of one man on security, privacy and anything else that catches his attention Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:28:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: Robert Penz http://www.mckeay.net/2008/02/15/scary-concept-friendly-worms/#comment-1301 Robert Penz Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:09:19 +0000 http://www.mckeay.net/2008/02/15/scary-concept-friendly-worms/#comment-1301 Hi! Just found that you wrote about the same topic as I did. Take a look at my thoughts http://robert.penz.name/33/good-worms-just-a-stupid-idea/ I just put a link to your post into it. Hi!

Just found that you wrote about the same topic as I did. Take a look at my thoughts http://robert.penz.name/33/good-worms-just-a-stupid-idea/

I just put a link to your post into it.

]]> By: Robert Penz Blog » Good Worms - Just a stupid idea http://www.mckeay.net/2008/02/15/scary-concept-friendly-worms/#comment-1300 Robert Penz Blog » Good Worms - Just a stupid idea Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:09:05 +0000 http://www.mckeay.net/2008/02/15/scary-concept-friendly-worms/#comment-1300 [...] Security podcast, which I listen to, also thinks that this is a bad idea - take also a look at his toughs. In IT Security [...] [...] Security podcast, which I listen to, also thinks that this is a bad idea - take also a look at his toughs. In IT Security [...]

]]> By: Suggested Blog Reading - Monday February 18th, 2008 | Andrew Hay http://www.mckeay.net/2008/02/15/scary-concept-friendly-worms/#comment-1285 Suggested Blog Reading - Monday February 18th, 2008 | Andrew Hay Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:29:14 +0000 http://www.mckeay.net/2008/02/15/scary-concept-friendly-worms/#comment-1285 [...] Scary concept: Friendly worms - If this ever became a reality, which I doubt it will, how long would you expect it would take before someone exploited the updating and transport mechanism to “do evil”? This isn’t a new idea, the concept of creating worms that patch your computer when you catch them. There are even some malware out there now that patches vulnerabilities on systems to make sure other worms can’t exploit the same vulnerabilities. But the problem is, if both beneficial and malign software show the same basic behavior patterns, how do you differentiate between the two? And what’s to stop the worm from being mutated once it’s started, since bad guys will be able to capture the worms and possibly subverting their programs. [...] [...] Scary concept: Friendly worms - If this ever became a reality, which I doubt it will, how long would you expect it would take before someone exploited the updating and transport mechanism to “do evil”? This isn’t a new idea, the concept of creating worms that patch your computer when you catch them. There are even some malware out there now that patches vulnerabilities on systems to make sure other worms can’t exploit the same vulnerabilities. But the problem is, if both beneficial and malign software show the same basic behavior patterns, how do you differentiate between the two? And what’s to stop the worm from being mutated once it’s started, since bad guys will be able to capture the worms and possibly subverting their programs. [...]

]]> By: Lee http://www.mckeay.net/2008/02/15/scary-concept-friendly-worms/#comment-1271 Lee Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:41:51 +0000 http://www.mckeay.net/2008/02/15/scary-concept-friendly-worms/#comment-1271 If this ever comes to pass, I can see a lot of high-interaction honeypot owners being pretty upset :) If this ever comes to pass, I can see a lot of high-interaction honeypot owners being pretty upset :)

]]> By: Martin http://www.mckeay.net/2008/02/15/scary-concept-friendly-worms/#comment-1268 Martin Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:16:02 +0000 http://www.mckeay.net/2008/02/15/scary-concept-friendly-worms/#comment-1268 Thanks for the link. I knew I'd read a paper on this before I just hadn't realized how long ago it was. Maybe the new MS paper will bring something new to light but I somehow doubt it. Martin Thanks for the link. I knew I’d read a paper on this before I just hadn’t realized how long ago it was. Maybe the new MS paper will bring something new to light but I somehow doubt it.

Martin

]]> By: kurt wismer http://www.mckeay.net/2008/02/15/scary-concept-friendly-worms/#comment-1264 kurt wismer Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:39:31 +0000 http://www.mckeay.net/2008/02/15/scary-concept-friendly-worms/#comment-1264 vesselin bontchev's paper "are good viruses still a bad idea" (http://www.people.frisk-software.com/~bontchev/papers/goodvir.html) is pretty much the final word on this topic and has been for more than a decade... microsoft is clearly too big for the right hand to know what the left hand is doing, otherwise some of the very bright people working on their anti-malware offering (who i *know* know this stuff) would have put an end to this train of thought before this embarrassing publication... vesselin bontchev’s paper “are good viruses still a bad idea” (http://www.people.frisk-software.com/~bontchev/papers/goodvir.html) is pretty much the final word on this topic and has been for more than a decade… microsoft is clearly too big for the right hand to know what the left hand is doing, otherwise some of the very bright people working on their anti-malware offering (who i *know* know this stuff) would have put an end to this train of thought before this embarrassing publication…

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