Comments on: Sasser author a ’scriptkiddy’

By: Jakob

Jakob — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 19:32:37 +0000

This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title . Thanks for informative article

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 06:39:09 +0000

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By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 09:34:48 +0000

Brilliant! Positively Genius! Such facile command of the language, and such prodigious capability to express oneself! What I find especially striking is the rebellious refusal to use capitalization or punctuation. How do you do it? Where does one find that elusive spark?

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 04:14:05 +0000

It wouldn’t matter if he was the reincarnation of Seymour Cray; there’s no way the news would portray him as anything other than a complete and utter dill. The way to punish script kiddies is to have the news portray them as idiotic, rather than notorious.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 27 May 2004 21:12:37 +0000

This is how we learn. There is a gigantic void in computer technology that is, and will continue to be, filled with people who want to crash test the tech most of us take for granted. If it wasnt this kid, it would have been someone else. It is my humble opinion that it is these types of people that make our tech stronger and actually server to increase security over the long haul. If it wasnt him, it would be someone else. This exploit has been know about for some time now. The admins who failed to properly protect themselves are just as responsible as the virus author. Microsoft is also to blame for this because of ……nm, anyone who doesn’t agree with that does’t have enough knowledge to provide a decent opinion anyhow. Lots of contributing factors here. I do not believe it would serve any greater good by punishing this kid. No monetary recovery, lost time is still lost time, and as far as discouragement….good luck. Virus authors are seldom caught and most of these kids dont even believe they are doing anything wrong until it is entirely too late.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 19 May 2004 10:44:51 +0000

i agree with you
i think every government should not trust on any operating system
developer and they should built their own private operating system

anti-trust to all operating system developer!!!
-a.L.i-

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Tue, 18 May 2004 19:53:10 +0000

You are one stupid idiot, someone should beat you to death, fucking moron.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Mon, 17 May 2004 19:48:30 +0000

if i was using a m$ os, i would be really scared by now. all this havoc from a scriptkiddie. just picture, hat a dedicated attack of a handfull of real hackers could have done…

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sun, 16 May 2004 23:21:16 +0000

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By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sun, 16 May 2004 23:20:28 +0000

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By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sun, 16 May 2004 09:18:32 +0000

Right on brother.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sun, 16 May 2004 09:05:56 +0000

Still,

A major corporation’s flagship product, felled by an amateur with no or little inside information “by accident”. If General Motors built like Microsoft built, they would be subject to tort. I’m not saying that software has to be airtight, but given the time and experience that Microsoft has had at building operating systems, I would have thought they would have put enough care in their designs to simplify and segregate and defend the operating system kernel.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 15 May 2004 08:13:54 +0000

Here’s an idea – don’t fucking run windows on your god damned critical operations like AIRLINES or GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

fucking idiots. I call it natural selection. If these idiots are actually stupid enough to run Windows, well, all the power to the virus writers. Jesus christ.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 15 May 2004 05:24:35 +0000

Freeware/shareware is non commercial to begin with, so they could escape testing if they wanted to. It would be hard to sue a shareware creator since he didn’t take your money, didn’t force you to try his product and offered you no expectation of performance.

As for the % issue… if a car is 99% OK, what good is that if the 1% are the brakes?

Cheers,

Montreal, Canada

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 15 May 2004 05:18:53 +0000

Hi, very good points, it got me thinking.

I’d say that software is not that unique in being a “market driven business” the automakers, candy-makers, etc. would all make similar, equally valid claims. The biggest difference is the rate of technological change. This is is probably unique. I say probably because I can’t think of an industry that faces a similar learning curve in terms of Moore’s law… well… hardware capabilites seem to outpace software development with fewer defects. In any event, the point you make is valid.

As far as cars are concerned, while the road and fuel don’t change, engines do, alloys and other materials do, designs do, environmental and safety regulations do. In similar fashion, any change in one part could impact the performance of others. But, regardless of what is used and how it is designed/made, the brakes have to work, it can’t catch fire at the slightest bump. etc.
The overall importance is critical enough to warrant certain standards. The analogy is flawed but the software industry’s products, at least SOME of them, have reached a point where their performance is also critical. How do we solve this?

In medical and legal professions, the quality comes in at several levels. The first level is accreditation of schools and training programs. The second is licensing boards that set minimum standards by determining codes of conduct and by requiring even those that have gone to the schools to pass board/bar exams. The third is liability insurance. Part of this is provided by mandatory bar/board fees, the rest is supplemental. Although no doctor or lawyer can guarantee results, you can sue them for mistakes, negligence, etc. I’m not sure if this is the correct model to follow for software because the issue is not so much the coders as the final product. Doctors and Lawyers don’t create and sell products, they provide services.

I’d prefer not to regulate software creation and coders but to improve the quality of commercial providers of critical systems, particularly operating systems. Notice I specify “commercial” which means that freeware/shareware would remain “at your own risk”. The thing that bugs me is that MS operating systems are pretty much also “at your own risk” yet we pay good money for them.

Anyhow, this merits more thought, a nice problem to chew on for a while

Take care,

Montreal, Canada

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 15 May 2004 03:36:22 +0000

“‘Sasser,’ a worm that disrupted the computers of Delta Airlines in the United States, the British Coast Guard and the European Commission in Brussels.”

Why would any business or government still put anything other than isolated games on an alleged operating system that is at the mercy of any dysfunctional juvie who can copy and paste some Visual Basic?

I certainly will never fly Delta. I don’t want to risk having the ‘captain’ announce, “Please buckle your seat belts. Due to an unexpected Outhouse macro virus, we will be crashing into the sea in approximately 30 seconds.”

Or maybe this from the British Coast Guard, “Dash it all! We’d love to come to the aid of that supertanker crew breaking up on the rocks, but we can’t move until the anti-virus software finishes cleaning our bloody MS Windows. We should be there tomorrow, after 7 reboots and the new patch comes out.”

I won’t touch the irony of the European Commission knocked out because they are using a system by the very vendor they are attempting to fine for anti-trust violations. That one’s good enough all by itself.

Anyone who uses that toy system for anything beyond toys is, demonstrably, an idiot.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 15 May 2004 02:37:01 +0000

Hmm, yes. interesting analogy, both of you.
(gratuitous handjob exchanges, pleasantries, etc.)

Spot-on for your accurate and thorough depiction of the quagmire this whole escalation of ‘information distribution’ versus ‘malicious code-writing’ has proferred upon us. I believe that the most apropos summation thus far, vis-a-vis the examples previously given, is…

(blah blah blah pointless random 1’s and 0’s digital detritus, keep on flowin’…yeadda pooh filth gnarch).

hmm…perhaps self and self’s cohorts should praise the binary goddess for all this wacky crazed talk about the ability of some ppl to bleed the fiber-machines and inflict temporary delays onto the magical wunderbar super-duper-cool Technology (c, (r), ™, etc.) that enables us to spend more time talking than actually doing. reading about things than experiencing them. and so on.

hehehe…you ninnies and excessively anal-retentive ‘oooh punish the kid’ just wait…you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

I WANNA FUSE ALL THESE CHIPS INTO A BIG HUGE GLASS SMOKING DEVICE AND FREEBASE SOURCE CODE! NUMMY! MY INTESTINES DANCE THE CAN-CAN EVERYTIME I HEAR OF ANOTHER SERVER HACK! WINDOWS, MAC, UNIX…THEY’RE ALL DELICIOUS WITH ENOUGH SALT!

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 15 May 2004 02:09:25 +0000

While I think we mostly agree, I have to say this:

There is no way to determine how many “flawed lines of code” are in a program. In theory, the entire program is vulnerable, inherently, and that situation can never be escaped.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 15 May 2004 02:01:54 +0000

To this point: “Still, some movement in this regard would change the cost/benefit calculus of firms that ship buggy software too early simply to increase their bottom line. One does get the feeling that some of these vulnerabilities could have been prevented at reasonable cost. Another possible side benefit to some sort of “vehicle highway testing certification” for software would be the impact it could have on MS’s monopolistic practises. While it wouldn’t eradicate them completely, it could create a more level playing field for competitive application developers. I’m not 100% on all the details but I’m convinced that the initiative is overdue.”

Software, for the most part, is a market driven business. The pressure to deliver “the next greatest thing” is intense. Perhaps it is the fault of setting the wrong expectations. What coder do you know hasn’t said, “oh, that? i can fix that in 5 minutes!”, fixes something and breaks 10 other things in the process some time in their career? If consumers become release-junkies, coders will deliver, for better or worse (mostly worse!)

The highway analogy does not quite work either. In the auto industry, does the road change regularly? Does the fuel change? How about the nozzle at the gas pump? Does it change shape, flow rate, etc.?

I’m all for quality in software. Perhaps we can look to a medical or legal analogy: coders practice software just as doctors practice medicine or lawyers practice law… What mechanisms are in place for those professions to ensure quality? (I’m asking, since I’m a coder, not a doctor or lawyer…)

houston

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 15 May 2004 02:01:46 +0000

houston