Re: Nematodes: The Making of 'Beneficial' Network Worms

[Roland Dobbins <rdobbins () cisco com>]

Concur.  I respect Dave Aitel, but he's just dead wrong about this,  
IMHO.

On Oct 6, 2005, at 2:09 PM, Fergie (Paul Ferguson) wrote:

> Of course, this is not news to any of you who follow the
> "Daily Dave" mailing list.
>
> And for the record, I think it is a really bad idea.
>
> Via eWeek:
>
> [snip]
>
> Convinced that businesses will use nonmalicious worms to cut down  
> on network security costs, a high-profile security researcher is  
> pushing ahead with a new framework for creating a "controlled worm"  
> that can be used for beneficial purposes.
>
> Dave Aitel, vulnerability researcher at New York-based Immunity  
> Inc., unveiled a research-level demo of the "Nematode" framework at  
> the Hack In The Box confab in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, insisting  
> that good worms will become an important part of an organization's  
> security strategy.
>
> "We're trying to change the way people think," Aitel said in an  
> interview with Ziff Davis Internet News. "We don't want people to  
> think this is impossible. It's entirely possible to create and use  
> beneficial worms and it's something businesses will be deploying in  
> the future."
>
> For years, security experts have debated the concept of using good  
> worms to seek and destroy malicious worms. Some believe that it's  
> time to use the worms' tactics against them and build good worms  
> that fix problems but the chaos and confusion associated with self- 
> propelled replicating programs have left others unconvinced.
>
> Aitel is among those who believe it is "inevitable" that worm  
> technology can significantly reduce the cost of disinfecting and  
> maintaining a corporate network.
>
> [snip]
>
> http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1867317,00.asp
>
> - ferg
>
>
> --
> "Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
>  Engineering Architecture for the Internet
>  fergdawg () netzero net or fergdawg () sbcglobal net
>  ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/
>
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Roland Dobbins <rdobbins () cisco com> // 408.527.6376 voice

UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because
that would also stop you from doing clever things.

                      -- Doug Gwyn
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