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Kama Sutra Worm Hits Softly

Posted by Zonk on Fri Feb 03, 2006 03:33 PM
from the not-a-problem-with-me dept.
Worms Security
An anonymous reader writes "Despite warnings of the danger posed by the Kama Sutra worm, ZDNet is reporting that things haven't been nearly as bad as expected." From the article: "There have been 'no reports of any (Kama Sutra) detonations so far. Also, the virus seems to be dropping in e-mail prevalence. It was down to second place yesterday, according to our monitoring stations, and slid again into third place today,' Paul Ducklin, head of technology at Sophos Asia-Pacific, told ZDNet Australia. The worm's ranking was overtaken by MyDoom and Netsky variants, which have been around for a number of years. "
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unknown

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[+] Kama Sutra Worm Could Make For A Bad Friday 317 comments
mikey1134 writes "CNN is running a story about the Kama Sutra worm, a virus that is coded to overwrite files of the (potentially thousands of) infected computers. They provide some background on this viral outbreak and warn users to protect themselves" From the article: "And even for home computer users who have never taken such precautions before, security experts say now would be a good time to back up your most important data, like financial information and family photographs, to CDs, DVDs, zip drives, or an external hard drive that you know is worm and virus free. Unlike a lot of malware that exploits vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system, there is no 'patch' that can be downloaded to ward off Kama Sutra."
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  • What? I don't understand.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by JustASlashDotGuy (905444) on Friday February 03 2006, @03:35PM (#14637477)
    It sounds like the news over hyped a story for no reason. Say it ain't so!
    • Sorry, it IS so. The media uses end-of-the-world headlines because it gets people riled up and excited, and this news about the Kama Sutra worm falls into that category...
      • Sorry, it IS so. The media uses end-of-the-world headlines because it gets people riled up and excited, and this news about the Kama Sutra worm falls into that category...

        Yeah, and the assocation Kama Sutra == faboulus sex in various positions fit for those training gymnastics since age five.

            • Ok, I screwed up (no pun intended)

              The great states of Iowa an Misouri also have 14, and where there are two different numbers for the same state it means

              the law within that country or state varies according to region or circumstances.

              So, I'm guessing 14 is legal if you are married (preferrably to a close relative), ;-)

    • Re:What? I don't understand.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by whoever57 (658626) on Friday February 03 2006, @03:42PM (#14637534) Journal
      It sounds like the news over hyped a story for no reason. Say it ain't so!
      Oh, there is a reason alright. Think how many extra subscriptions of Norton, McAfee, etc. were sold in the last couple of days.

    • Re:What? I don't understand.... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Pantero Blanco (792776) on Friday February 03 2006, @03:45PM (#14637560)
      Possibly, the reason it didn't hit so hard was the fact that it was so hyped.

      If someone warns me that I'm about to get hit by a car, and I move and avoid being hit, I wouldn't say that there was nothing to be worried about.
    • My mail system filters tens of thousands of messages per day, for various businesses and it hasn't logged a single one of those viruses. So, as far as I'm concerned, the whole thing is much ado about nothing...

    • More prepared? better prepared? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by guildsolutions (707603) on Friday February 03 2006, @04:11PM (#14637686)
      I really think that people are becoming more and more prepared for viruses, I would also venture to say that more and more people are running virus scanners and more and more isps are filtering the content of the emails and other methods of transmissions.

      Overreaction? Maybe, but definitly better than underreaction.

  • Uh oh... (Score:4, Funny)

    by suwain_2 (260792) on Friday February 03 2006, @03:35PM (#14637480) Journal
    I got:
    Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.
    the first few times I tried to view this article. Are we sure Slashdot isn't infected?
    • > I got:
      > Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.
      > the first few times I tried to view this article. Are we sure Slashdot isn't infected?

      Naw, if Slashdot had been hit, it would have said DATA Error [47 0F 94 93 F4 K5]. Please move along.

      Man, those Kuro5hin folks, always trying to get the last byte in edgewise...

  • Old Threats (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nom du Keyboard (633989) on Friday February 03 2006, @03:36PM (#14637488)
    overtaken by MyDoom and Netsky variants, which have been around for a number of years.

    I, for one, would favor a slightly smarter Internet that simply filtered out known threats, stopping any further spread once they're identified. The fact that attacks continue to run years after they're first known is just plain stupid!

  • Racy Title (Score:5, Funny)

    by Artie_Effim (700781) on Friday February 03 2006, @03:36PM (#14637495)
    that might just be the raciest title on a /. article ever. W0W

  • The media loves it (Score:3, Insightful)

    by JesseL (107722) on Friday February 03 2006, @03:37PM (#14637500) Homepage Journal
    when there is a particular date they can get in a tizzy about. No one will know they were making a mountain out of a mole hill until the "crisis" has passed. Remeber the michelangelo virus?
    • One source I saw (was it /. yesterday?) actually suggested keeping your computers turned off today. All too familiar with the big Michroangelo scare of 1990 (oh geez I'm old...)
    • Do I ever... My father insisted on turning off the answering machine, because it was digital one that did voice stamps and other complex features, and the "virus could spread through the phone lines".

      +1 to my dad for knowing that the answering machine did have a computer as a component
      -100 for thinking that it was susceptible to a virus dialing it up and infecting it

  • The big question remains (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Lxy (80823) on Friday February 03 2006, @03:39PM (#14637516) Journal
    Does this mean A) we've done a good job training our users or B) no one infected with this worm is willing to admit it?

    Most of the users I support would rather reconstruct their documents than admit they clicked on a "free pr0n" e-mail. Wonder how accurate this news really is.
    • A) we've done a good job training our users
      B) no one infected with this worm is willing to admit it?

      Do we care which? As long as they either don't do it anymore, or are smart enough to understand it when they do something wrong I am happy.

    • The people over at F-Secure [f-secure.com] seem to think it's too early for any real damage assesment. Their arguement makes a lot of sense.
      --
      From the weblog:
      So far today we haven't received any significant Nyxem damage reports.
      Vast majority of the machines infected by Nyxem are home computers. Nothing will happen on them until people get home from work and boot up their machines. Half an hour later the damage starts. The user won't realise what's going on until an hour or two later, when it's already late Friday night
    • C) The Anti-Virus vendors made a much bigger deal out of this than it really was to increase sales.

  • Killing me softly (Score:3, Funny)

    by TubeSteak (669689) on Friday February 03 2006, @03:39PM (#14637518) Journal
    I felt all flushed with fever, embarrassed by the crowd,
    I felt he found my letters and read each one out loud.
    I prayed that he would finish but he just kept right on ...

    Strumming my pain with his fingers,
    Singing my life with his words,
    Killing me softly with his song,
    Killing me softly with his song,
    Telling my whole life with his words,
    Killing me softly with his song...

    That's what came to mind when i read the title "Kama Sutra Worm Hits Softly." It's not my fault though, my mother subjected me to years of 'light' music on my way to school.

    Anyways, I'm not surprised the media took this one and ran with it. When was the last time they had a 'major' malicious virus to talk about?

  • duh, this is the foreplay (Score:5, Funny)

    by syle (638903) <syle@nospaM.waygate.org> on Friday February 03 2006, @03:42PM (#14637537) Homepage
    Of course it's soft at first. But wait until it changes positions a few times! It will be surprisingly intense before long.

  • IT'S NOT A WORM! (Score:5, Informative)

    by SanityInAnarchy (655584) <ninja@slaphack.com> on Friday February 03 2006, @03:46PM (#14637564) Journal
    It's a virus.

    Surely Slashdot knows the difference? A virus/trojan relies on user stupidity. A worm relies on software insecurity.
    • WOAH, the plot thickens!

      but ya, it also spreads via windows shares (not just emails), so yes, it is a worm.
      • It spreads via Windows shares if you run executables on other peoples shares. As in "stupidly run executables from untrusted sources". As in "it is a virus, not a worm". As in "stop spreading misinformation" :)

    • Re:IT'S NOT A WORM! (Score:5, Informative)

      by TheSkyIsPurple (901118) on Friday February 03 2006, @04:22PM (#14637776)
      Really?

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_worm [wikipedia.org]

      A computer worm is a self-replicating computer 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....The main difference between a computer virus and a worm is that a virus can not propagate by itself whereas worms can. A worm uses a network to send copies of itself to other systems and it does so without any intervention

      This thing (from what little I read) emails itself around when it can... which would qualify it as a worm.
      I'm a little fuzzy on the intervention part... the user has to to the initial activation, which could be intervention, but then again you have to do the initial activation with viruses, so I don't think that qualifies.

      This thing doesn't seem to make itself part of another executable persé, so it wouldn't quite qualify as a virus.

      Maybe I read my definitions wrong...
    • duh, its because worm fits better with the imagery of the name "Kama Sutra".

  • Comparisons to other worms are misleading (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Max Nugget (581772) on Friday February 03 2006, @03:54PM (#14637628)
    The worm's ranking was overtaken by MyDoom and Netsky variants, which have been around for a number of years.

    This information distorts the issue. Kama Sutra carries an extremely destructive payload, deleting a user's local data and data on attached network drives (and, worse, the antivirus software on the networked computers can't prevent these deletions). This cannot be directly compared to MyDoom or NetSky, which merely clog networks, install backdoors (that are not usually used for anything nearly as destructive), and turn computers into spam and DoS zombies.

    The above statement is like saying that rainstorms have overtaken tornados in prevalence. That doesn't matter, because tornados do much, much more damage than rainstorms do.

  • Delayed reaction (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MoogMan (442253) on Friday February 03 2006, @04:01PM (#14637640)
    In all fairness though, you may not notice a critical document has been lost until a few days down the line...
  • Looks like someone could use a little blue pill before using the Kama Sutra.

  • Misprint in the virus email subject (Score:4, Funny)

    by killermookie (708026) on Friday February 03 2006, @04:15PM (#14637718) Homepage
    Instead of it saying "Schoolgirl fantasies gone wrong" it said "Schoolgirl does math homework and studies history".

  • Yeah But... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Comatose51 (687974) on Friday February 03 2006, @04:25PM (#14637794) Homepage
    Yeah but just wait til the Tantra worm hits... wait for it... wait for it....
  • Despite warnings, or BECAUSE of them? The Houston Chronicle thinks the latter [chron.com], and I'm inclined to agree.
  • Surely not. Although the ZDNet report [zdnet.com] cited seems to have been based in large part on this lengthy and detailed analysis [sans.org] over at the Internet Storm Center:

    Ok, in some parts of the world it is already Feb 3rd and some damage is already probably done.
    If you know any story related to this event, please share with us .

    Samir Datt wrote to tell us about "unconfirmed reports" of damage in Bangalore, Ludhiana and Delhi. (email arrived 1am EST, 6am GMT).

    Yup, that's the whole thing. Sure glad that the folks at Ziff

  • Dang it! (Score:3, Funny)

    by darthservo (942083) on Friday February 03 2006, @04:36PM (#14637888)
    I was planning on this thing being big!

    Now what am I going to do with 500,000 T-shirts, stickers, coffee mugs, mouse pads, and other miscellaneous paraphernalia printed with the slogan "I got pwned by Kama Sutra!"

  • I can hear the marketing department of a dozen antivirus companies go

    "Oh Crap"

    Where have all the virus makers gone anyway. We must either start funding script kiddies, or get into the antispam business.

  • Kama Sutrat hits softly... (Score:3, Funny)

    by xutopia (469129) on Friday February 03 2006, @04:45PM (#14637963) Homepage
    It's called foreplay!!!

    I jest!! :-D

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