As Lovsan
34-413: As MSBLAST Blaster (also known as Lovsan , Lovesan , or MSBlast ) was a computer worm that spread on computers running operating systems Windows XP and Windows 2000 during August 2003. The worm was first noticed and started spreading on August 11, 2003. The rate that it spread increased until the number of infections peaked on August 13, 2003. Once a network (such as a company or university)
68-565: A Cornell University computer science graduate student, unleashed what became known as the Morris worm , disrupting many computers then on the Internet, guessed at the time to be one tenth of all those connected. During the Morris appeal process, the U.S. Court of Appeals estimated the cost of removing the worm from each installation at between $ 200 and $ 53,000; this work prompted the formation of
102-623: A host program, as it is an independent program or code chunk. Therefore, it is not restricted by the host program , but can run independently and actively carry out attacks. Exploit attacks Because a worm is not limited by the host program, worms can take advantage of various operating system vulnerabilities to carry out active attacks. For example, the " Nimda " virus exploits vulnerabilities to attack. Complexity Some worms are combined with web page scripts, and are hidden in HTML pages using VBScript , ActiveX and other technologies. When
136-457: A large number of vulnerabilities in the network. Any code designed to do more than spread the worm is typically referred to as the " payload ". Typical malicious payloads might delete files on a host system (e.g., the ExploreZip worm), encrypt files in a ransomware attack, or exfiltrate data such as confidential documents or passwords. Some worms may install a backdoor . This allows
170-524: A machine, then the majority of worms are unable to spread to it. If a vulnerability is disclosed before the security patch released by the vendor, a zero-day attack is possible. Users need to be wary of opening unexpected emails, and should not run attached files or programs, or visit web sites that are linked to such emails. However, as with the ILOVEYOU worm, and with the increased growth and efficiency of phishing attacks, it remains possible to trick
204-540: A major corporation, which would shunt itself from one nexus to another every time his credit-code was punched into a keyboard. It could take days to kill a worm like that, and sometimes weeks." The second ever computer worm was devised to be an anti-virus software. Named Reaper , it was created by Ray Tomlinson to replicate itself across the ARPANET and delete the experimental Creeper program (the first computer worm, 1971). On November 2, 1988, Robert Tappan Morris ,
238-514: A user accesses a webpage containing a virus, the virus automatically resides in memory and waits to be triggered. There are also some worms that are combined with backdoor programs or Trojan horses , such as " Code Red ". Contagiousness Worms are more infectious than traditional viruses. They not only infect local computers, but also all servers and clients on the network based on the local computer. Worms can easily spread through shared folders , e-mails , malicious web pages, and servers with
272-407: Is a message to Bill Gates , the co-founder of Microsoft and the target of the worm. The worm also creates the following registry entry so that it is launched every time Windows starts: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ windows auto update=msblast.exe Although the worm can only spread on systems running Windows 2000 or Windows XP , it can cause instability in
306-600: Is a standalone malware computer program that replicates itself in order to spread to other computers. It often uses a computer network to spread itself, relying on security failures on the target computer to access it. It will use this machine as a host to scan and infect other computers. When these new worm-invaded computers are controlled, the worm will continue to scan and infect other computers using these computers as hosts, and this behaviour will continue. Computer worms use recursive methods to copy themselves without host programs and distribute themselves based on exploiting
340-529: Is classified as a helpful worm . Welchia was successful in deleting Blaster, but Microsoft claimed that it was not always successful in applying their security patch. This worm infected systems by exploiting vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows system code ( TFTPD.EXE and TCP on ports 666–765, and a buffer overflow of the RPC on port 135). Its method of infection is to create a remote shell and instruct
374-481: The CERT Coordination Center and Phage mailing list. Morris himself became the first person tried and convicted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act . Conficker , a computer worm discovered in 2008 that primarily targeted Microsoft Windows operating systems, is a worm that employs three different spreading strategies: local probing, neighborhood probing, and global probing. This worm
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#1732771868306408-675: The DCOM RPC service on the affected operating systems, for which a patch had been released one month earlier in MS03-026 and later in MS03-039. This allowed the worm to spread without users opening attachments simply by spamming itself to large numbers of random IP addresses. Four versions have been detected in the wild. These are the most well-known exploits of the original flaw in RPC, but there were in fact another 12 different vulnerabilities that did not see as much media attention. The worm
442-550: The Ethernet principles on their network of Xerox Alto computers. Similarly, the Nachi family of worms tried to download and install patches from Microsoft's website to fix vulnerabilities in the host system by exploiting those same vulnerabilities. In practice, although this may have made these systems more secure, it generated considerable network traffic, rebooted the machine in the course of patching it, and did its work without
476-528: The Morris worm and Mydoom showed, even these "payload-free" worms can cause major disruption by increasing network traffic and other unintended effects. The term "worm" was first used in this sense in John Brunner 's 1975 novel, The Shockwave Rider . In the novel, Nichlas Haflinger designs and sets off a data-gathering worm in an act of revenge against the powerful men who run a national electronic information web that induces mass conformity. "You have
510-605: The RPC service on systems running other versions of Windows NT , including Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition . In particular, the worm does not spread in Windows Server 2003 because Windows Server 2003 was compiled with the /GS switch, which detected the buffer overflow and shut the RPCSS process down. When infection occurs, the buffer overflow causes the RPC service to crash, leading Windows to display
544-538: The Internet randomly, looking for vulnerable hosts to infect. In addition, machine learning techniques can be used to detect new worms, by analyzing the behavior of the suspected computer. A helpful worm or anti-worm is a worm designed to do something that its author feels is helpful, though not necessarily with the permission of the executing computer's owner. Beginning with the first research into worms at Xerox PARC , there have been attempts to create useful worms. Those worms allowed John Shoch and Jon Hupp to test
578-406: The advantages of exponential growth , thus controlling and infecting more and more computers in a short time. Worms almost always cause at least some harm to the network, even if only by consuming bandwidth , whereas viruses almost always corrupt or modify files on a targeted computer. Many worms are designed only to spread, and do not attempt to change the systems they pass through. However, as
612-413: The biggest-ever worm loose in the net, and it automatically sabotages any attempt to monitor it. There's never been a worm with that tough a head or that long a tail!" "Then the answer dawned on him, and he almost laughed. Fluckner had resorted to one of the oldest tricks in the store and turned loose in the continental net a self-perpetuating tapeworm, probably headed by a denunciation group "borrowed" from
646-463: The computer to be remotely controlled by the worm author as a " zombie ". Networks of such machines are often referred to as botnets and are very commonly used for a range of malicious purposes, including sending spam or performing DoS attacks. Some special worms attack industrial systems in a targeted manner. Stuxnet was primarily transmitted through LANs and infected thumb-drives, as its targets were never connected to untrusted networks, like
680-436: The consent of the computer's owner or user. Regardless of their payload or their writers' intentions, security experts regard all worms as malware . Another example of this approach is Roku OS patching a bug allowing for Roku OS to be rooted via an update to their screensaver channels, which the screensaver would attempt to connect to the telnet and patch the device. One study proposed the first computer worm that operates on
714-508: The embedded programmable logic controllers of industrial machines. Although these systems operate independently from the network, if the operator inserts a virus-infected drive into the system's USB interface, the virus will be able to gain control of the system without any other operational requirements or prompts. Worms spread by exploiting vulnerabilities in operating systems. Vendors with security problems supply regular security updates (see " Patch Tuesday "), and if these are installed to
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#1732771868306748-551: The end-user into running malicious code. Anti-virus and anti-spyware software are helpful, but must be kept up-to-date with new pattern files at least every few days. The use of a firewall is also recommended. Users can minimize the threat posed by worms by keeping their computers' operating system and other software up to date, avoiding opening unrecognized or unexpected emails and running firewall and antivirus software. Mitigation techniques include: Infections can sometimes be detected by their behavior - typically scanning
782-497: The following message and then automatically reboot, usually after 60 seconds. System Shutdown: This system is shutting down. Please save all work in progress and log off. Any unsaved changes will be lost. This shutdown was initiated by NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM Time before shutdown: hours:minutes:seconds Message: Windows must now restart because the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Service terminated unexpectedly. This
816-633: The internet. This virus can destroy the core production control computer software used by chemical, power generation and power transmission companies in various countries around the world - in Stuxnet's case, Iran, Indonesia and India were hardest hit - it was used to "issue orders" to other equipment in the factory, and to hide those commands from being detected. Stuxnet used multiple vulnerabilities and four different zero-day exploits (e.g.: [1] ) in Windows systems and Siemens SIMATICWinCC systems to attack
850-655: The performance of massive scale ephemeral artworks. It turns the infected computers into nodes that contribute to the artwork. Welchia Welchia , also known as the " Nachi worm ", is a computer worm that exploits a vulnerability in the Microsoft remote procedure call (RPC) service similar to the Blaster worm . However, unlike Blaster, it first searches for and deletes Blaster if it exists, then tries to download and install security patches from Microsoft that would prevent further infection by Blaster, so it
884-455: The same deficiencies exploited by the Blaster worm , Welchia infected computers and automatically began downloading Microsoft security updates for Windows without the users' consent. Welchia automatically reboots the computers it infects after installing the updates. One of these updates was the patch that fixed the exploit. Other examples of helpful worms are "Den_Zuko", "Cheeze", "CodeGreen", and "Millenium". Art worms support artists in
918-527: The second layer of the OSI model (Data link Layer), utilizing topology information such as Content-addressable memory (CAM) tables and Spanning Tree information stored in switches to propagate and probe for vulnerable nodes until the enterprise network is covered. Anti-worms have been used to combat the effects of the Code Red , Blaster , and Santy worms. Welchia is an example of a helpful worm. Utilizing
952-481: The system to download the worm using TFTP.EXE. Specifically, the Welchia worm targeted machines running Windows XP. The worm used ICMP , and in some instances flooded networks with enough ICMP traffic to cause problems. Once on the system, the worm patches the vulnerability it used to gain access (thereby actually securing the system against other attempts to exploit the same method of intrusion) and run its payload,
986-452: Was considered a hybrid epidemic and affected millions of computers. The term "hybrid epidemic" is used because of the three separate methods it employed to spread, which was discovered through code analysis. Independence Computer viruses generally require a host program. The virus writes its own code into the host program. When the program runs, the written virus program is executed first, causing infection and damage. A worm does not need
1020-462: Was infected, it spread more quickly within the network because firewalls typically did not prevent internal machines from using a certain port. Filtering by ISPs and widespread publicity about the worm curbed the spread of Blaster. In September 2003, Jeffrey Lee Parson, an 18-year-old from Hopkins, Minnesota , was indicted for creating the B variant of the Blaster worm; he admitted responsibility and
1054-401: Was programmed to start a SYN flood against port 80 of windowsupdate.com if the system date is after August 15 and before December 31 and after the 15th day of other months, thereby creating a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) against the site. The damage to Microsoft was minimal as the site targeted was windowsupdate.com, rather than windowsupdate.microsoft.com, to which the former
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1088-406: Was redirected. Microsoft temporarily shut down the targeted site to minimize potential effects from the worm. The worm's executable, MSBlast.exe, contains two messages. The first reads: I just want to say LOVE YOU SAN!! This message gave the worm the alternative name of Lovesan. The second reads: billy gates why do you make this possible ? Stop making money and fix your software!! This
1122-615: Was sentenced to an 18-month prison term in January 2005. The author of the original A variant remains unknown. According to court papers, the original Blaster was created after security researchers from the Chinese group Xfocus reverse engineered the original Microsoft patch that allowed for execution of the attack. The worm spreads by exploiting a buffer overflow discovered by the Polish security research group Last Stage of Delirium in
1156-501: Was the first indication many users had an infection; it often occurred a few minutes after every startup on compromised machines. A simple resolution to stop countdown is to run the "shutdown /a" command, causing some side effects such as an empty (without users) Welcome Screen. The Welchia worm had a similar effect. Months later, the Sasser worm surfaced, which caused a similar message to appear. Computer worm A computer worm
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