Friendly virius?

[bombayofpigs]

...especially considering the fact that a lot of IDS's out there are looking at protocol violations as an attack on the network. Just because the "virus" would be doing something "good", the program would still be violating a protocol's RFC and therefor would be blocked.

[mrcoffee12]

I think Neb is right, Code Green fixed the problems that both Code Red and Code Blue made.
As for making a 'friendly' virus, it really isn't a very popular idea, people that write them think that destroying things is more fun that building them, and in some ways it is, but helping the poor saps that get hit with those virii wouldn't be a bad idea if somebody had the time and skills...I'm learning but I still can't write any lengthy programs that work.

[nebulus200]

There is a good book put out by SANS on this, I will try to find out what the title is...

Found it: Intrusion Signatures and Analysis, Stephen Northcutt, et.al, New Riders, Indianapolis, Indiana, ISBN 0-7357-106305

Kind of dry reading at times, but I found it fairly informative...and it is pretty much what you are asking for...

Neb

[Reality]

The problem with that is that it still causes many of the same problems that destructive virii do. It will still clog networks looking for things to fix.

[shelobo]

Virilli writers keep peter noton in new shoes.And with out the trojan and virilli writer's finding the expliots every one would be in deep poopoo,wouldnt ya think?Theres good and bad in all things.The last new p/c i bought had the Backweb server on it ,as most new p/cs do ,so the manufacturer can do "Auto" updates And allow a person to get online techhelp. I disable all those and remove Backweb as soon as I get a new system.We are at a time on the net when we wont have complete control over what we say or view online,so why let someone "update our systems "when its easier to do manualy.

[Jabberwocky]

Well I think the reason that people would not agree to having good viruses is that they won't have actual control of their system

but when you think about it, who really does have much control or understanding of their machines. even most techies don't don't but scratch the serface of their operating system or hardware. there's just too much. more often then not we're at the mercy of our own machines.

i think that good viruses would be a great idea, but most people who write viruses do so becase they have no regard for other peoples property. luckily, most people who are inclined to write viruses aren't smart enough to do anything worse then a vb script.