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Computer Viruses and Worms

Computer viruses and worms are malicious programs that can spread from one computer to another. Viruses attach themselves to other programs while worms are self-contained. Common things viruses may do include displaying messages, erasing files, or corrupting data. Early viruses spread via floppy disks or email attachments. The Morris worm in 1988 disrupted many computers as it rapidly replicated itself across the internet. Maintaining system updates and using antivirus software can help prevent infection from viruses and worms.

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22 views14 pages

Computer Viruses and Worms

Computer viruses and worms are malicious programs that can spread from one computer to another. Viruses attach themselves to other programs while worms are self-contained. Common things viruses may do include displaying messages, erasing files, or corrupting data. Early viruses spread via floppy disks or email attachments. The Morris worm in 1988 disrupted many computers as it rapidly replicated itself across the internet. Maintaining system updates and using antivirus software can help prevent infection from viruses and worms.

Uploaded by

Mebanphira Cajee
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Computer Viruses and Worms*

*Referred to slides by Dragan Lojpur, Zhu Fang at Florida State University


Definition of Virus
 A virus is a small piece of software that
piggybacks on real programs in order to get
executed
 Once it’s running, it spreads by inserting
copies of itself into other executable code or
documents
Typical things that some current
Personal Computer (PC) viruses do
 Display a message
Typical things that some current
Personal Computer (PC) viruses do
 Display a message
 Erase files
 Scramble data on a hard disk
 Cause erratic screen behavior
 Halt the PC
 Many viruses do nothing obvious at all
except spread!
Executable Viruses
 Traditional Viruses
 pieces of code attached to a legitimate
program
 run when the legitimate program gets
executed
 loads itself into memory and looks around
to see if it can find any other programs on
the disk
Boot Sector Viruses
 Traditional Virus
 infect the boot sector on floppy disks and
hard disks
 By putting its code in the boot sector, a
virus can guarantee it gets executed
 load itself into memory immediately, and it
is able to run whenever the computer is on
E-mail Viruses
 Moves around in e-mail messages
 Replicates itself by automatically mailing
itself to dozens of people in the victim ’s e-
mail address book
 Example: Melissa virus, ILOVEYOU virus
Melissa virus
 March 1999
 the Melissa virus was the fastest-spreading virus
ever seen
 Someone created the virus as a Word document
uploaded to an Internet newsgroup
 People who downloaded the document and opened
it would trigger the virus
 The virus would then send the document in an e-
mail message to the first 50 people in the person's
address book
Melissa virus
 Took advantage of the programming
language built into Microsoft Word called
VBA (Visual Basic for Applications)
Prevention
 Updates
– Windows has a feature called Critical Updates
– An entire branch of Microsoft dedicated to staying
one step ahead of the hackers
– When a possible security loophole is fixed, you
need to download the patch right away
 Anti-Viruses
 More secure operating systems

e.g. UNIX
Worms
 Worm - is a self-replicating program,
similar to a computer virus. A virus attaches
itself to, and becomes part of, another
executable program; however, a worm is
self-contained and does not need to be part
of another program to propagate itself.
Morris Worm
 The first worm to attract wide attention, the Morris worm,
was written by Robert Tappan Morris, who at the time was
a graduate student at Cornell University.
 It was released on November 2, 1988.  The level of
replication created system loads that not only brought it to
the attention of system administrators, but also disrupted
the target computers. It was guessed that the cost in
"potential loss in productivity" caused by the worm and
efforts to remove it ranged at each system from $200 to
more than $53,000
Morris Worm
 Morris himself was convicted under the US Computer
Crime and Abuse Act and received three years probation,
community service and a fine in excess of $10,000.

 Robert Tappan Morris is now a professor at MIT


Worms…
 Worms – is a small piece of software that uses
computer networks and security holes to replicate
itself. A copy of the worm scans the network for
another machine that has a specific security hole.
It copies itself to the new machine using the
security hole, and then starts replicating from
there, as well.
 They are often designed to exploit the file
transmission capabilities found on many
computers.

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