The Story of Conficker

[Lashiec]

A really nice writeup on one of the most devilishly designed computer worm ever: Conficker. Its origins, evolution, and how security companies are facing a fight the worm seems to be winning for now.

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For the technical details, I suggest the Wikipedia article on Conficker^w, and, of course, the thread started by Ehtyar in this same forum, which acts as a summary of sorts of both sources, with a healthy discussion as a cool bonus.
via Daring Fireball

[Renegade]

The eye-chart that's linked to in there is nifty. Remotely pulls in images with some from anti-virus companies, that the maleware blocks.

[app103]

The eye-chart that's linked to in there is nifty. Remotely pulls in images with some from anti-virus companies, that the maleware blocks.

That eye test isn't 100% accurate. There are cases where it will fail and give you a false negative (you'll see the images even though you are infected). I explained why and gave an example in this post from almost a year ago: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=17688.msg159239#msg159239

[Lashiec]

Thanks for reminding me of that thread, app, looks like Ehtyar managed to summarize the most (if not all) important points about Conficker covered by the article.

[JavaJones]

The solution is obvious, and is mentioned in the article: build an anti-worm worm. Ok, so there are legal issues to do it (and distribute it in the US). So just make good friends with someone in a "wild west" country where it's not a problem and hey, bob's your uncle!

- Oshyan