full-disclosure - aside: worm vs. worm?

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite for Android: free password hash cracker in your pocket

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <200308120813.h7C8DPc6009520@caligula.anu.edu.au>
From: avalon at caligula.anu.edu.au (Darren Reed)
Subject: aside:  worm vs. worm?

In some mail from Andrew J Homan, sie said:
> 
> It seems that between the time dcom.c first starting popping up around the
> internet and today, there was ample time for someone to write and release a
> worm designed to patch infected systems and remove any sign of itself. 
> Given that on the 16th of this month windowsupdate.com will be DDOSed, does
> anyone else see this as an opportunity for a war of worms with
> windowsupdate.com at stake?  Would anyone consider releasing a patching
> worm on their own network if they knew it wouldn't spread to the rest of
> the internet or is there a downside to this notion which I'm not realizing?

You know, if the DDoS was targetted at someone innocent, I might be
more sympathetic towards the problem of a web site being DDoS'd.

But it's Microsoft's own web site that is being targeted and it is
through their own bug that it is being made possible.  As much as
they would like to point the finger at others for making the code
available to do it, if their software didn't have the bug, it would
not be possible it all.  Hrm, I don't really want to start _THAT_
discussion again, but I don't think you will find much, if any,
sympathy for Microsoft being targetted by this worm.  They're a
large, rich, monopoly of a company.  Do they really deserve any
nice sympathy at all ?  I suspect I'm not alone in these feelings.

Darren