Great Worms I Have Known
CS 493/693 Lecture,
Dr. Lawlor, 2006/04/12
1987
The "Great Internet Worm".
Spread via a buffer overflow in Finger, a known hole in sendmail, rsh,
and password cracking. The first modern worm, and arguably the
best.
1994
The Good Times Virus.
Actually infects *human beings*, not computers--the warning about the
(nonexistent) "Good Times Virus" was itself the virus. This is
essentially just a chain letter, but it spread because it made people
feel like spreading the virus made the net more secure. There was
a big backlash against this virus, and many major news outlets and
knowledgeable people announced "No virus can spread via email", which
was absolutely true at the time.
2000
Romeo and Juliet,
the first(?) of many email viruses. Most email viruses require
human interaction to spread, but the degree of user stupidity required
varies greatly--the most blatant are just an .exe that users must
explicitly run; the most insidious just have to be previewed (or
received) to spread. Microsoft Outlook is massively
disproportionately represented among email viruses; this is partly
responsible for Microsoft's terrible reputation for security.
The initial (unlimited phase) of net worm propagation can be analyzed via the same simple exponential growth pattern as biological viruses and bacteria and the chain reaction of nuclear fission.