A “Date” with Conficker

Well,  it’s been 9 Days since the conficker worm was supposed to cause mayhem to the highly “unpatched” computer world.  But so far nothing has happened. is it OK to say that conficker “stood us up?” .Even before the 1st of April i started getting e-mail forwards from my friends warning me of an “April Fool’s Day” virus and advising me to be cautious before opening any attachments or documents i receive. The Cyberworld was thrown into a frenzy during the week leading up to 1st April. Almost every technology website had featured Conficker in it’s headlines!

I was reading  an article submitted to slashdot. by Dan Kaminsk It was titled  Taming Conficker the Easy Way. He talked about his work with Honeynet Project members Tillmann Werner and Felix Leder who have been digging into Conficker’s profile on the network. (Co-incidentally I’m currently doing my research on Honeypots/Honeynets ). That is when i started getting really interested in conficker

They published an article called “Know Your Enemy: Containing Conficker” I went trough the article on the 31st of March and found it very educative and Interesting. I would recommend  you take some time to read this article. It’s not too technical and it’s relatively simple to understand if you have little experience with Network. After reading the article i secretly came to admire the skill/knowledge/dedication and sophistication of the programmers who write conficker (I only wish they could channel their skills into something more productive ).  Conficker B even uses MD6 hashing Algorithm!

The couple of days leading up-to 1st April, Most system administrators were busy patching up their systems and making sure that they would be safe or protected when conficker activates itself.  But during this time there were also some System Demonstrators who were “busy”. They were not busy patching their systems, or updating their anti viruses, No they were busy doing other stuff The System Administrators i am talking about are those who use Linux systems on their network.  (I’m sure you can see where this is headed )

Yes I want to say it loud and clear! Conficker A/B/C doesn’t attack Linux systems! Conficker effects the MS08-067 vulnerability. (Yes the M stands for Microsoft ). So as you can see, once again Linux Rules the day!! I Therefore highly recommend that you try out any flavour of Linux and see. And don’t believe what others tell you about Linux being hard to use  and not user friendly. I have been using it for years now and believe me, It’s easier to use than windows once u get the hang of it. I personally recommend Ubuntu because of the good community support you get if you have any problems .  (Remember Conficker strains are still out there so switch to Linux soon )

Till then Stay Open Source