Full Disclosure mailing list archives
Re: Benign Worms
From: Mike Hoye <mhoye () neon polkaroo net>
Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 12:26:10 -0400
On Fri, May 13, 2005 at 11:13:03AM -0500, k k wrote:
There is debate surrounding whether releasing benign worms such as Nachi or Welcha, in general is ethical or not. But network administrators can still create benign worms for their need (not necessarily Nachi or Welcha) and release them in their domain to patch systems. 1. Do people do that? Or at least, have you considered it?
No. It's lunacy. Worms spread through security holes. They are by-definition uncontrolled. If you have known security holes on a system, you should be fixing that, not relying on it for software updates. The worms you are describing are well-intentioned mistakes. Modifying somebody else's system without their permission is unethical, and if they're your own systems, you should have way, way better techniques in place for dealing with upgrades than that.
2. If yes, under what conditions would you do that?
I would employ this technique if: - I were off my medication and drinking my way through a quart of gin, or - I really, really wanted to lose my job. No sysadmin their right mind would employ the technique you describe if they wanted to stay in that line of work.
3. If not, what prevents you from doing that?
The fact that it naked, gibbering insanity. -- "I have discovered a truly remarkable heresy which this margin is too small to contain." - Jim Macdonald _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
Current thread:
- Re: Benign Worms, (continued)
- Re: Benign Worms Valdis . Kletnieks (May 14)
- Re: Benign Worms Eric Paynter (May 14)
- Re: Benign Worms Valdis . Kletnieks (May 14)
- Re: Benign Worms Eric Paynter (May 14)
- Re: Benign Worms James Tucker (May 14)
- Re: Benign Worms Valdis . Kletnieks (May 14)
- Re: Benign Worms Brian Anderson (May 14)
- Re: Benign Worms J.A. Terranson (May 14)
- Re: Benign Worms Valdis . Kletnieks (May 15)
- Re: Benign Worms Michael Holstein (May 16)
- Re: Benign Worms Valdis . Kletnieks (May 13)
- Re: Benign Worms Chris Umphress (May 14)
- Re: Benign Worms Steve Kudlak (May 14)
- RE: Benign Worms Sean Crawford (May 14)