Full Disclosure mailing list archives

RE: The 'good worm' from HP


From: "Todd Towles" <toddtowles () brookshires com>
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2004 08:46:52 -0500

Microsoft has. It is called SMS. 

-----Original Message-----
From: full-disclosure-admin () lists netsys com
[mailto:full-disclosure-admin () lists netsys com] On Behalf Of The Central
Scroutinizer
Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2004 7:35 PM
To: Mailing List - Full-Disclosure
Subject: Re: [Full-disclosure] The 'good worm' from HP

Would it not be better to have a standard secure backdoor provided by a
security package that could downloaded or installed by disk and works
hand in hand with port scanning software, if this is really necassary. I
am supprised Microsoft have not released such a peice of software; maybe
a third party have.

Aaron

----- Original Message -----
From: "Todd Towles" <toddtowles () brookshires com>
To: "joe" <mvp () joeware net>
Cc: "Mailing List - Full-Disclosure" <full-disclosure () lists netsys com>
Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2004 7:15 PM
Subject: RE: [Full-disclosure] The 'good worm' from HP


I hope it is a bad choice of words. He is a VP, should I say more?

Even if it is a controlled worm that moves around in the internal
network patching computers, it sounds like a very stupid idea.

-----Original Message-----
From: full-disclosure-admin () lists netsys com
[mailto:full-disclosure-admin () lists netsys com] On Behalf Of joe
Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2004 8:20 AM
To: Todd Towles; fulldisclosure () wateraxe demon nl;
full-disclosure () lists netsys com
Subject: RE: [Full-disclosure] The 'good worm' from HP

Allan is right. I didn't notice people calling it a worm.


From the article at InfoWorld...

<SNIP>
We've been working with (customers) for the last month now," said Tony
Redmond, vice president and chief technology officer with HP Services
in
an interview.
<SNIP>
"This is a good worm," said Redmond. "It's turning the techniques (of
the
attackers) back on them."
<SNIP>

Possibly he used a bad choice of words.



I definitely agree though that you probably shouldn't be "infecting"
machines to patch them. In order to patch through a hole like that you
are running code through that hole and that is the same as infecting
in
my book, you just aren't propogating. You could still make the machine
unstable or cause other issues. I think my preference would be
something
along the lines of what the NetSquid project is doing mentioned
previously but be more aggressive. Sure have the feed from SNORT to
actively go out and pop the machines currently sending bad traffic,
but
also scan for machines that
*could* get infected and shut them down as well. That would be a good
use of this tech HP is working on, simply identify the machines.
However
others have done the similar in terms of detection so that wouldn't be
nearly as new and daring. They could do a good thing by making it
fully
supported by a big name, stable, quick, and part of an overall
framework
for protecting the network environment.

 joe



-----Original Message-----
From: full-disclosure-admin () lists netsys com
[mailto:full-disclosure-admin () lists netsys com] On Behalf Of Todd
Towles
Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2004 8:58 PM
To: fulldisclosure () wateraxe demon nl; full-disclosure () lists netsys com
Subject: RE: [Full-disclosure] The 'good worm' from HP

<SNIP>

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