Comments on: White Hat Worms and robots.txt?

By: David Edmondson

David Edmondson — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

How would a system tell the difference between white hat and black hat
worms or virii when they arrive? Distributed trust network?

By: l.m.orchard

l.m.orchard — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Well, my incredibly naive idea is this: White hats knock (ie. contact a known local service), and go away if told to. Black hats sneak in the back door as usual.

By: BillSeitz

BillSeitz — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I think this is a bad line to cross. It's harder to argue against RIAA worms when you're supporting other "good causes" worms.

Unfortunately I don't have any great alternative ideas.

Get the OEMs to bundle ZoneAlarm lite? (Get ZoneAlarm to make a version that's tweaked to scare clueless users into paranoid fears?)

By: l.m.orchard

l.m.orchard — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Hmm, maybe. Though I'd still say that, if worms sent out by the RIAA don't go away when told, they're rogue. The only worms with white hats are the ones that stop other worms and virii. Anything else is unwelcome, and subject to neutralization by other worms.

Hmm. But yeah, lots of issues and it's a very naive idea

By: sunny

sunny — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

i actually thought your idea was awesome…just send out worms to fix security holes and they respect your no worms directive unless you specifically allow them in…
nice site i’ll come back later.

By: BillSeitz

BillSeitz — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Another thought: have a site that tests the holes in your computer when you ask it to. Then you need someone like EFF to promote it. But at least it’s a 1-stop-shop.

By: BillSeitz

BillSeitz — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Another step back: aren't pretty much all the victims of these big worms users who click on email attachments?

(Sorry if that's a stupid question, I haven't been playing close attention to the technical coverage of the latest infections...)

By: John Burton

John Burton — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

What happens if I’m running some private protocol on a port and this comes along and tried to send some other random data and breaks things? Not a good idea

By: 2lmc spool

2lmc spool — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

2003/09/06 12:49

White hat worms

By: Grant Henninger

Grant Henninger — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

White-hat worms to fix computer vulnerabilities

Having white-hat worms fix computer vulnerabilities is one of the best ideas I have heard in a long time. If it is so easy for Blaster or any of the other worms that have been going around to get into...