0350: "Network"

[Sc4Freak]

So it's been about a year and a half. Has anybody actually implemented this yet?

[spirov92]

Come 2009, we need to assemble a team to begin work on the ultimate warhol worm.

actually I was thinking if it's possible to make a virus that deletes Windows and installs Linux in it's place. It will start by deleting the windows partition, then it will reformat the disk to ext3 and download and install some Linux distro. Do you guys think it's possible?

[fwlbg]

Uh... not to be a Nazi, but it's 'amongst them', not 'between them.' Between means two. Amongst is any number.

But I laughed.

I'm not sure, but I think that's just a "rule of thumb". I looked up "rule of thumb" to see if it actually meant a "rule" (it doesn't), and I found something hella funny.

Spoiler:

I edited it to make it more obvious where the "lulz" can be had.

Edit: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/rule-of-thumb.html is where I found it, but it doesn't work all the time.

[Squirx]

I can see its been a long time since anyone commented here, but I REALLY want to know: did anyone actually try something like this yet? I totally want to, but I know nothing about programming unfortunatly. Someone please tell me I can have my own virus aquarium!

[Cue]

Come 2009, we need to assemble a team to begin work on the ultimate warhol worm.

actually I was thinking if it's possible to make a virus that deletes Windows and installs Linux in it's place. It will start by deleting the windows partition, then it will reformat the disk to ext3 and download and install some Linux distro. Do you guys think it's possible?

Actually, yes, it is possible. It would make space and resize the system partition if necessary, then make a partition for itself. It would then proceed to alter the Windows boot loader to boot from the newly created partition and therefore boot into the 'virus'. It would then proceed to format the Windows partition, then download and install Linux on said partition.

It's worrying that I know how to do this. I'm not sure but I think I've just started something huge...

Also, my future house is looking like a giant mess of xkcd stuff now, with a ball pit and a virusaquarium.

[yahiek]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/technology/27compute.html includes something that is almost identical to this comic. The relevant quote:

In early April, Patrick Peterson, a research fellow at Cisco Systems in San Jose, Calif., gained some intelligence about the authors’ interests. He studies nasty computer programs by keeping a set of quarantined computers that capture and observe them — his “digital zoo.”

The first thing I thought of was naturally xkcd.

[Magnanimous]

Y'know, I just now noticed the dangling participle. Took me long enough.

[j6m8]

I still want to do this. So here's my plan for C&C: Just found a happy program called Sandboxie (check the .com for free trial that, as far as I can tell, has no limits) that 'quarantines' a section of your hdd from which you can run programs. The creators boast that you can run your e-mail program from inside Sandboxie and not worry about spreading viruses around your computer.

So maybe we just need a giant HDD, a few email clients all checking simultaneously, a few open ports to the web, etc... And Sandboxie-like technology. Any thoughts?

[math1337]

I'm really going to do this thing. I already have virtualbox installing an old(no service pack) xp cd. I'll then duplicate the vdi a few times and make a virtual internal network for viruses.

[j6m8]

Well. I'm not sure about you guys, but I'm very not okay with the fact that this has taken so long to get rolling -- and once we were finally making some movement, the thread stopped... So here's my proposition. I'm going to try to learn enough Python or Processing (whichever one proves to be easier, likely Processing) to successfully fake it, using similar graphics. But I'll need help with coding. If I have any takers, I'll get started right away and post progress. Otherwise, it seems to me this project is virtually (hurr hurr) dead.

I mean -- yeah, it loses a lot of the awesomeness when it's not actually REAL, but hopefully the interest in the program will get the REAL stuff happening again... And... Uhm... When it does, we'll at least have the graphics done... So... That's fun.

[j6m8]

I'm really going to do this thing. I already have virtualbox installing an old(no service pack) xp cd. I'll then duplicate the vdi a few times and make a virtual internal network for viruses.

Hm -- any luck? It seems to me that running a series of VMs is REALLY REALLY inefficient... Even though it's technically what Randall was looking for here, it's unrealistic to hope for real-time simulations of that, especially since you'd have to individually install the master program on each, and hope it didn't get hurt.... Instead, it seems like it'd be easier to use a single machine with several "playgrounds" for the virii.

[lynkyn]

awesome, but to the alt text, virus's arnt impossible to make for mac (dunno about linux), they are just VERY uncommon, since the vast majority uses windows... So, if macs win in the future, virus makers will just go after them instead.

But macs are much safer in general, and when there is an exploit, it's fixed in 5 minutes flat.

[Red Hal]

...and when there is an exploit, it's fixed in 5 minutes flat.

I hate to disagree with you but ... I'm going to disagree with you.

[J Thomas]

...and when there is an exploit, it's fixed in 5 minutes flat.

I hate to disagree with you but ... I'm going to disagree with you.

"Based on the research, the issue impacts Safari users on Windows only, with the RealPlayer and Adobe Flash plug-ins installed."

That doesn't look like a problem for Macs at all.

[Red Hal]

Fair enough. I obviously need better supporting evidence for my assertion.

[Spiny Norman]

Colleagues of mine are actually building on of these on a redundant server. It's for a tech fair. I'm surprised none of them came here to announce it...

[wneeley]

How could I setup the computer network set up in this comic?

[Flumble]

How could I setup the computer network set up in this comic?

Since they're virtual machines, you should look in the direction of VM network adapters. E.g. Virtual Box has a network adapter mode called 'internal networking' which keeps all traffic inside a virtual adapter.
I don't know about the details of routing and such within the internal networking, but I think the manager VM (has to be a VM as internal networking is really internal) should run a DHCP and NAT server and should have a secondary network adapter connected to the net (via your usual network interface). The network should have either a dumb connect-everything-to-everything topology* or a promiscuous mode (VBox allows for the latter) so your manager VM can sniff all packets and thereby monitor virus transmission.


*Too bad one can't force computers to route IP traffic through a specific node in e.g. a ring topology. Now that I'm thinking of it: the setup probably also allows for toying with Ethernet. Actually, handing students a VM with a raw networking interface each and pushing them to build a network should be in any CS bachelor. In part because you get to put your theoretical knowledge into practice, but mostly because it's a hell lot of fun! Wait a sec, that's in my BSc next quartile.

[wneeley]

How can I get the computers to execute email atachments and send emails to the other computers. What is some software or scripts to use. Would I just set the email accounts to automatically forward to the other email accounts or just one email account for all computers. What could I use to show the main screen, with the red and green boxes to show wether they are infected and a list of virus's they have.

[Flumble]

Good question. So good that you'll have to answer it mostly by yourself. But for starters I'd say the following is important:
for detection of virusses and signalling about it, you could write a script which runs a clamAV scan (just don't have it remove anything) every now and then and sends the result to the manager VM (I guess even batch allows you to form a URL with parameters and executing it (if not, VBScript is built into windows as well));
for executing attachments and the likes, you could use autohotkey to detect clickable buttons (mostly 'open' and 'yes' and 'ok' and 'surely I want that free trip to Hawaii') and click them;
for getting spam, just put up the mail addresses (obviously it shouldn't be an address of a big provider like gmail or outlook, since those have spam filters) on public sites and auto-reply to spam messages;
for getting infected via the web, you should probably include IE6 and activeX in the installation image and then have the VM browse to obscure porn & warez sites (via autohotkey).

With some hacking that together, I think you can get some infections in the system.

[pitareio]

If someone actually plans to do something like this : you'll need to set seriously restrictive firewall rules for outgoing traffic from the aquarium, if you don't want your IP on every blacklist of the Internet. You'd be hosting your own botnet.

(The only way to be 100% safe would be not to connect it to the Internet at all, but where would you get the viruses from?)