Stuxnet - First weaponized malware?

[Dwere134]

Did you download it and test it out to see?

Yea, I just loaded up a nuclear power plant image into VMWare.

Smartass.

[Goatboy]

Better than being a dumbass

[sanddbox]

Did you download it and test it out to see?

Yea, I just loaded up a nuclear power plant image into VMWare.

Well, these were run on windows computers, so it is technically possible.

[insomaniacal]

No idea if Sanddbox is right or not, but seriously? You'd think for anything related to weaponry they'd have some seriously modified open source OS, or even better, a totally custom OS written solely for their needs.

I wouldn't want to trust Windows (or even 90% of Linux Distros) with something like Nuclear Power.

[tgoe]

Windows is just an interface to the PLCs for workers so it's the chosen transport mechanism for stuxnet. The software that's actually responsible for the running and monitoring of the machines is custom and dedicated to that purpose. btw, I say that link earlier looks like stuxnet only because it's identical to one I got elsewhere and a couple AV say it is stuxnet. I haven't been able to look at it that much in depth and unfortunately I don't have the hardware to get it up and running fully...

P.S. Stuxnet Dossier if you haven't seen it yet:
http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/enterprise/media/security_response/whitepapers/w32_stuxnet_dossier.pdf

[fashizzlepop]

seriously modified open source OS,

Yeah, I would highly doubt they'd use an open source OS. Windows was probably the better option because so much attention is thrown at it to keep it patched.

*Nix has been proven to be easier to break into. It's just that there's not as much gain into making *Nix virii as Windows...

[tgoe]

seriously modified open source OS,

Yeah, I would highly doubt they'd use an open source OS. Windows was probably the better option because so much attention is thrown at it to keep it patched.

*Nix has been proven to be easier to break into. It's just that there's not as much gain into making *Nix virii as Windows...

Windows was most likely not chosen at all but rather implied due to Microsoft's monopoly.

Again, stuxnet's target is the PLC. Not windows or *nix or any PC. If the people at the facilities used *nix, it would have spread via *nix to try to get at the machinery.

Windows have been proven to be easiest to break into. Pick up rock, throw.

[insomaniacal]

seriously modified open source OS,

Yeah, I would highly doubt they'd use an open source OS. Windows was probably the better option because so much attention is thrown at it to keep it patched.

*Nix has been proven to be easier to break into. It's just that there's not as much gain into making *Nix virii as Windows...

As I said "Highly Modified". And I also highly doubt a properly configured *Nix box would be any easier to break into versus a Windows box. Source on that?

[Vulpine]

As I said "Highly Modified". And I also highly doubt a properly configured *Nix box would be any easier to break into versus a Windows box. Source on that?

Regarding IBM 2010 Security Evaluation.

This slightly supports what fashizzlepop says, but the system critical exploits still favor Windows even with Linux having more vulnerabilities. Windows just gets a bad reputation because it's heavily targeted due to market share. If you flip it around (Linux or Apple dominating) you'd see one of them catching the same flak. Heck, someone even managed to sneak a trojan into some Linux repositories that was just recently discovered after months of sitting there.

I'm inclined to agree with tgoe that this worm, or some variation, would have got in regardless of the OS.