The most dangerous computer virus ever: the story of the W32.Blaster.Worm
The W32.Blaster.Worm first reared its ugly head on August 11, 2003. The Blaster Worm (a.k.a. Lovsan, or MSBlast) infected an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 computers within the first 10 minutes of its release. The worm was designed to exploit a Windows DCOM RPC vulnerability (MS03-026) announced by Microsoft on July 16, 2003 and patched on July 17. The Blaster Worm was written by a 17-year-old Algerian named Sadam.
On August 12, two days after the worm’s release, Microsoft released a security update to fix the DCOM RPC vulnerability. Despite this, the worm continued to spread at an alarming rate.
The Blaster Worm was not the first worm to exploit the DCOM RPC vulnerability – the SDbot worm (a.k.a. GAOBOT.WORM, or W32.Spybot.Worm) had done so several weeks earlier – but it was by far the most virulent.
The Blaster Worm caused considerable grief for many users. The most common symptom of infection was a message box that popped up every few minutes, informing the user that their system was infected and that they needed to reboot. The message box also contained a link to a website that supposedly offered a removal tool, but which actually just displayed a fake error message.
Although the message boxes were annoying, they were not the only problem caused by the Blaster Worm. The worm also attempted to launch a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against www.windowsupdate.com, the website used by Microsoft to provide security patches. The DDoS attack caused considerable problems for Microsoft, making it difficult for users to download the security patch that would protect their systems from the worm.
Fortunately, the Blaster Worm was not particularly destructive. It did not delete any files or damage any system components. However, it did consume a lot of system resources, making infected computers slow and unresponsive.
The Blaster Worm was eventually brought under control by a number of factors. First, Microsoft released a second security patch (MS03-039) that fixed the flaw that the worm was exploiting. Second, a number of companies released firewall and antivirus products that could detect and remove the worm. Finally, the worm’s creator, Sadam, was arrested by US authorities on August 15.
Despite the fact that the Blaster Worm caused a great deal of inconvenience for many users, it did not have a lasting impact on the internet or on computer security. However, it did serve as a wake-up call for many people, illustrating the importance of keeping their systems up-to-date with the latest security patches..Resource
The most dangerous computer virus ever: the story of the Sasser virus
and its creator
In 2004, a computer virus known as Sasser began infecting computers around the world. The virus, which was created by a German teenager named Sven Jaschan, caused infected computers to crash and reboot repeatedly. Jaschan was arrested and sentenced to 21 months in prison for his role in creating the virus.
While Sasser did not cause any lasting damage to infected computers, it was extremely disruptive and caused a great deal of inconvenience to users. The virus quickly spread around the world, affecting millions of computers. Jaschan’s motivation for creating the virus is not known, but it is believed that he was trying to gain attention from the media and the security community.
The Sasser virus was particularly notable for its ability to spread quickly and without any user interaction. Once a computer was infected, the virus would attempt to infect other computers on the same network. The virus would also spread to computers that were not connected to the internet by using a flaw in the Windows operating system.
Microsoft released a patch for the flaw that the Sasser virus exploited just days after the virus began spreading. However, many users had not yet installed the patch and were still vulnerable to the virus.
The Sasser virus was eventually brought under control and is no longer a threat. However, it serves as a reminder of the importance of keeping your computer updated and patched against security vulnerabilities.
Visit malwarezero.org to learn more about most dangerous computer virus ever. Disclaimer: We used this website as a reference for this blog post.