Re: Any Practical Joker or Benign Viruses Out There?

From: Alun Jones [MS MVP] (alun_at_texis.com)
Date: 10/27/03 

Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2003 21:57:23 GMT

In article <eZrwttMnDHA.2404@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl>, "Robert Moir"
<bofh@mvps.org> wrote:
>David H. Lipman wrote:
>> I would NOT call the Welchia/Nachi worm benign simply because it
>> generates so much traffic that it creates a virtual DoS on many ISP
>> networks.
>
>The thing is, it was designed to be benign. The design was flawed.

Or the implementation. Being human, of course, we all make mistakes. There
are very few programs of any decent size that are bug-free (I have yet to
see one), so it makes very little sense to deliberately release such flawed
software onto the net in a form that allows it to reproduce itself
unchecked. And, since any check is just as likely to have flaws as any
other part of the program (c.f. the Robert Morris Worm), logically we should
assume that any program designed to reproduce will reproduce unchecked.

This is why there is no such thing as a benign virus. You may intend your
virus to be benign, but each such virus to date has been destructive in one
way or another that its authors had not foreseen. Don't believe that any
virus can be benign!

Alun.
~~~~

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