I recall an early analyst of Stuxnet writing that it was so complex that it was almost as if it had been written by an alien intelligence. That really captured the imagination of Slashdot for awhile.
The Stuxnet worm may be the most sophisticated software ever written
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Re: The Stuxnet worm may be the most sophisticated software ever written
#342I'd argue that Google Search is much more sophisticated than Stuxnet. Windows is much more sophisticated. Linux is more sophisticated than Stuxnet. The list goes on. We tend to ignore the sophistication of things we are familiar with, and hype those that surprise. But that's not a fair measure of anything.
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Re: The Stuxnet worm may be the most sophisticated software ever written
#343So stuxworm is more sophisticated than an OS its written for? Sounds ridiculous.
Maybe because sometimes it can be relatively easy to to write some software, but much harder to find its bugs and write exploits for them? otherwise, why would bugs even exist?
>why would bugs even exist
people make mistakes, it is innate feature of human being. Bugs exist because it is not economically effective to find them. Bugs, given unlimited amount of resources, is possible easy to find whenever they are. Google how one guy hacked infamous HackingTeam alone. He provided some estimates how long it took him. Does it make his software the most sophisticated one on the planet? If his software is the most sophisticated, can he develop Windows alone?
Re: The Stuxnet worm may be the most sophisticated software ever written
#344If this short read piked your interest in Stuxnet, I can recommend the book "Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon". It explains in great detail how Stuxnet worked and, which I found the most exciting, how it was discovered and reverse engineered.
If you are not a book type of person, I recommend watching the movie Zero Days :)
IMDB link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5446858/ (2016)
Looks good! Might have to check it out tonight.
Re: The Stuxnet worm may be the most sophisticated software ever written
#345I would argue that this one was more sophisticated: http://pferrie.tripod.com/papers/zmist.pdf What I am seeing lately with malware is increasing decline in sophistication, today malware is lame compared to the malware created around 2000. I would think that level of low level knowledge is rapidly dropping. When there were still real file infectors, there were some serious nasty technologies involved (btw, todays ran…
I agree. Mistfall (and z0mbie himself) was years ahead of its time. For those not aware of Mistfall: typical viruses simply append their code to the target. To avoid detection, polymorphism was introduced: viruses generate permutations of decryption logic for the actual static but encrypted virus body. The next step was metamorphism: the virus body itself got permuted. Mistfall was one step further: it disassembled t…
Maybe another link for those who love malware history, this site also just vanished...
https://web.archive.org/web/20110205151357/http://www.rootki...
> "merged in its own permuted body and rebuilt the host."
Actually it was even more sophisticated, it not only merged its permutated body into the host, but rather rearanged the host in a way to merge chunks of its body between the chunks of host original code, using jmp instructions to keep the code flow, where entry point was inserted on random. If he would further armored it by additional polymorphism layers for each chunk this would make it even algorythmicaly impossible to detect (on the other side, even now, no one can claim it can detect all the permutations, while the disinfection is limited to "delete infected files"). This was work of art (I was a malware analyst), todays malware is a joke compared to what z0mbie was doing (even if I could argue that there is lot to do on windows, infecting MBR and owning the Windows by serving them the calls to yourself is still (maybe I am outdated?) something to be seen. I would really love to shake his hand even if we were on oposite sides :)
Re: The Stuxnet worm may be the most sophisticated software ever written
#346Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only in a western welfare bubble. Morality over war is what you can afford having other security needs taken care of.
The western world has developed institutions that give it security. Once those parts of the world ravaged by war do the same, they too will enjoy peace and stability.
Right, but it's difficult to establish those institutions when your country is ravaged by war and corruption...
Re: The Stuxnet worm may be the most sophisticated software ever written
#347Earlier quoted context omitted.
Think of controllers for say a dam, or an autopilot system in a jet.
How would either of these be worse than a nuke going off in Hong Kong or NYC?
Dams are dangerous beasts. The KMT breached some dikes in the 1930s for the purpose of environmental warfare, and in the process killed half a million peasants and displaced millions more.
Re: The Stuxnet worm may be the most sophisticated software ever written
#348Stuxnet changed history. Any "game of chicken" style equilibria is broken if the probability a nuclear actor's command and control drops below 100%. If there is even a 1% chance that when a Big Red Button is pushed the missiles fail to launch the game becomes unwinnable. Simulations of imperfect information in dynamic brinkmanship where both players are known to have advanced cyber capabilities results in a single dr…
Since the probability is below 100% IRL, this is trivially seen to be false. Evidence: Here is a hand. It is not irradiated...
Re: The Stuxnet worm may be the most sophisticated software ever written
#349Earlier quoted context omitted.
Without power, logistics & supply lines stop working, no more groceries after a few days, riots and plunderings in the streets a week later...
Anything that doesn't require refrigeration would still work though, trucks run on diesel after all. Which makes me concerned about the future; if the transport network becomes electric, a power outage will cripple things even more. Unless we build self-contained, internet-disconnected charging stations maybe, but that's not going to be done at any kind of significant scale.
Just a guess, but: Gas stations use pumps that run on electricity.
Re: The Stuxnet worm may be the most sophisticated software ever written
#350Damn that guy can write! I've read this story 4 times now since it was posted and it still gives me goose bumps to read it.