Re: What is the difference between a worm and a trojan ?

From: mike3 (mike4ty4_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 06/03/04

  • Next message: mike3: "Re: What is the difference between a worm and a trojan ?" 
    Date: 2 Jun 2004 19:29:18 -0700

    pmeister2@lycos.com (Peter Meister) wrote in message news:<c8e6db$2u5$00$1@news.t-online.com>...
    > Ok, I know the difference between a virus and a trojan. But what is the difference between a worm
    > and a trojan? Is the one a subset of the other type or are they completele different ?
    >
    > Peter

    All viruses, including worms, can replicate once inside a computer.
    Trojans are just programs that promise one thing but do something
    completely different (and usually something bad) -- for instance a
    program might promise to be a cool game but when executed it wipes
    your hard disk. But they _do_not_replicate_. Viruses (including worms)
    REPLICATE. Trojans do not. Since a virus and worm are pretty much the
    same thing, a self-replicating program, the difference is in the means
    of execution. File viruses simply piggyback on other programs within
    the computer they infect, so they require the user to activate or copy
    these programs to multiply and spread to other computers. Worm viruses
    are 100% self-contained, they do not require piggybacking on another
    program to be executed. Usually the user just executes the virus, it
    installs itself into the registry, and proceeds to e-mail or otherwise
    propagate itself. Trojans are just scraps of harmful code that do not
    replicate at all. Trojans CAN NOT REPLICATE ON THEIR OWN. For the
    analogy to a biological system, a virus/worm is the equivalent of a
    biological virus, whereas a trojan is some sort of toxic chemical or
    gene. The toxic chemical cannot make more of itself, but the virus
    can.

  • Next message: mike3: "Re: What is the difference between a worm and a trojan ?"

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