Fergie's Tech Blog

Nematodes: The Making of 'Beneficial' Network Worms

For the record, I think this is a really bad idea.

Ryan Naraine writes in eWeek:

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.

posted by Fergie @ 10/06/2005 07:05:00 AM