[LINK] Conficker, boots April First

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Computer Experts Unite to Hunt Worm

By JOHN MARKOFF nytimes.com March 19, 2009 


An extraordinary behind-the-scenes struggle is taking place between 
computer security groups around the world and the brazen author of a 
malicious software program called Conficker.

The program grabbed global attention when it began spreading late last 
year and quickly infected millions of computers with software code that 
is intended to lash together the infected machines it controls into a 
powerful computer known as a botnet. 

Since then, the program’s author has repeatedly updated its software in a 
cat-and-mouse game being fought with an informal international alliance 
of computer security firms and a network governance group known as the 
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. 

Members refer to the alliance as the Conficker Cabal.

The existence of the botnet has brought together some of the world’s best 
computer security experts to prevent potential damage. 

Last month, Microsoft announced a $250,000 reward for information leading 
to the capture of the Conficker author..

The inability of the world’s best computer security technologists to gain 
the upper hand against anonymous but determined cybercriminals is viewed 
by a growing number of those involved in the fight as evidence of a 
fundamental security weakness in the global network. 


An examination reveals that the zombie computers are programmed to try to 
contact a control system for instructions on April 1. 


There has been a range of speculation about the nature of the threat 
posed by the botnet, from a wake-up call to a devastating attack.

Researchers who have been painstakingly disassembling the Conficker code 
have not been able to determine where the author, or authors, is located, 
or whether the program is being maintained by one person or a group of 
hackers. 

The Conficker program is built so that after it takes up residence on 
infected computers, it can be programmed remotely by software to serve as 
a vast system for distributing spam or other malware. 

Several people who have analyzed various versions of the program said 
Conficker’s authors were obviously monitoring the efforts to restrict the 
malicious program and had repeatedly demonstrated that their skills were 
at the leading edge of computer technology. 

For example, the Conficker worm already had been through several versions 
when the alliance of computer security experts seized control of 250 
Internet domain names the system was planning to use to forward 
instructions to millions of infected computers.

Shortly thereafter, in the first week of March, the fourth known version 
of the program, Conficker C, expanded the number of the sites it could 
use to 50,000. 

That step made it virtually impossible to stop the Conficker authors from 
communicating with their botnet.

“It’s worth noting that these are folks who are taking this seriously and 
not making many mistakes,” said Jose Nazario, a member of the 
international security group and a researcher at Arbor Networks, a 
company in Lexington, Mass., that provides tools for monitoring the 
performance of networks. “They’re going for broke.”

A report scheduled to be released Thursday by SRI International, a 
nonprofit research institute in Menlo Park, Calif., says that Conficker C 
constitutes a major rewrite of the software. 

Not only does it make it far more difficult to block communication with 
the program, but it gives the program added powers to disable many 
commercial antivirus programs as well as Microsoft’s security update 
features.

“Perhaps the most obvious frightening aspect of Conficker C is its clear 
potential to do harm,” said Phillip Porras, a research director at SRI 
International and one of the authors of the report. “Perhaps in the best 
case, Conficker may be used as a sustained and profitable platform for 
massive Internet fraud and theft.”

“In the worst case,” Mr. Porras said, “Conficker could be turned into a 
powerful offensive weapon for performing concerted information warfare 
attacks that could disrupt not just countries, but the Internet itself.”

The researchers, noting that the Conficker authors were using the most 
advanced computer security techniques, said the original version of the 
program contained a recent security feature developed by an M.I.T. 
computer scientist, Ron Rivest, that had been made public only weeks 
before. 

And when a revision was issued by Dr. Rivest’s group to correct a flaw, 
the Conficker authors revised their program to add the correction. 

Although there have been clues that the Conficker authors may be located 
in Eastern Europe, evidence has not been conclusive.  

Security researchers, however, said this week that they were impressed by 
the authors’ productivity. 

“If you suspect this person lives in Kiev,” Mr. Nazario said, “I would 
look for someone who has recently reported repetitive stress injury 
symptoms.”

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Cheers,
Stephen