Hi all, The problem is that if you say that good things come out of this there will be people out there who get inspired to write new worms with the argument that they "do good to the society" without considering the side-effects, or who just use it as an excuse to do damage. Also it's human nature (or something like that) to have the opinion that if something is bad you aren't allowed to say that it has something good in it too, but that's not really an objective argument. In fact the worm might have done lots of good - some of the vulnerable databases probably contain very sensitive information. A DoS of the Internet doesn't last forever, but if sensitive information from databases get into the hands of the wrong people it's a long-lasting problem. Sensitive corporate information, and especially sensitive information about individuals, and so on. I would rather have no Internet access for a few days than have sensitive information about myself leaked to the wrong people. Of course the perfect solution would be if those responsible for the databases make sure they're secure, but in a world that isn't perfect a worm might force them to make sure they're secure. Unfortunately lot's of people think they can neglect security as long as they don't see anything bad happening (and they often go selectively blind on purpose). I know for a fact that a lot of people responsible for very sensitive systems neglect security more or less on purpose for different reasons, and their only touch with reality is when they're struck with a worm or similar. Hopefully some of them have learned to take security more seriously now, and hopefully some sensitive information that would have leaked out in the future won't do so now, because of the worm. So I believe he wrote that - seriously, I do. ;-) That aside, I *don't* think releasing worms is a good way to solve the problem! /Arne -----Original Message----- From: John Howie [mailto:JHowie@securitytoolkit.com] Sent: den 26 januari 2003 00:17 To: jasonc@science.org; Jay D. Dyson; Bugtraq Subject: RE: MS SQL WORM IS DESTROYING INTERNET BLOCK PORT 1434! Jason, I can't believe you wrote this - seriously, I can't. > > As of now we don't know who wrote the worm, but we do know that it looks > like a concept worm with no malicious payload. There is a good argument to > be made in favor of such worms. > What good can come of a widespread DoS of the Internet? What about the problems that come hacker getting a hold of the payload and making it more malicious before everyone can respond? Remember, most people won't know about this until Monday and won't be able to fix the problem until later that day, or perhaps later in the week. > > Before you get upset at your vendor, or anyone else's, consider the bigger > picture and recognize the increased security hardening the Internet just > received. > It shouldn't have needed it. Microsoft released a patch for the vulnerability some time ago (granted it wasn't easy to install, especially for MSDE installations) but the real problem is those system administrators who don't apply patches when there is no good reason not to, and the network and firewall administrators who, for some incomprehensible reason, leave open ports like this in their firewalls and routers. Maybe the time has come to draft legislation to prosecute not only the writers of such malware, but those who recklessly leave their systems vulnerable and defenseless and, through their negligence, help propagate malware. Lastly, Microsoft and all other vendors need to make their patches available for all configurations and easier to install (a quick check shows that SQL Server SP3 is still not available for MSDE). John Howie CISSP MCSE President, Security Toolkit LLC
