Chaotic Good

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A place to post examples of chaotic good actions.

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A helpful worm to get rid of a bad worm (infosec.pub)

submitted 5 months ago by ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net to c/chaoticgood@sopuli.xyz

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welchia

Welchia, also known as the "Nachi worm", is a computer worm that exploits a vulnerability in the Microsoft remote procedure call (RPC) service similar to the Blaster worm. However, unlike Blaster, it first searches for and deletes Blaster if it exists, then tries to download and install security patches from Microsoft that would prevent further infection by Blaster, so it is classified as a helpful worm. Welchia was successful in deleting Blaster, but Microsoft claimed that it was not always successful in applying their security patch.[

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[+] Apytele@sh.itjust.works 62 points 5 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago (2 children)

A better analogy to the OP might be... Inserts DNA into a cell that that cell...

Granted, I haven't been in a biology class in like 7 years but isn't that how viruses work, and by extensions bacteriophage? I think they use RNA instead of DNA, but that's pedantic

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 10 points 5 months ago (2 children)

There are both DNA and RNA viruses. Not all viruses incorporate themselves into the host genome, thus the special term ‘retroviruses’ for those that do.

[–] JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Woah, I've only ever seen 'retrovirus' in reference to things like "scientists find retrovirus in ice!" So I totally thought it meant retro virus. I was wrong lol

[–] thevoidzero@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

HIV is the most famous retrovirus. The reason it's hard to cure is basically once it goes from bloodstream to the host cells, it adds itself to the host DNA and RNA, then it just replicates with our cells and that our cell will produce more of it.

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 3 points 5 months ago

Truly ‘retro’ viruses are too cool to use the term! It’s such an annoying hipster vibe they give off

[–] BakerBagel@midwest.social 4 points 5 months ago

A retrovirus does transcription in the opposite direction. It's RNA genome is used as a template to create DNA which is then used to hijack the host cell and replicate the virus. It's a bit like a cuckoo bird laying it's egg in the host nest, only once that egg hatches it turns the other eggs into cuckoos as well.

Retroviruses were entirely theoretical prior to HIV, as RNA is famous for being unstable. Anyone who has worked in a genetics lab can tell you how big a PITA RNA can be, as even a heavy bump to the lab bench can ruin an experiment.

[–] DrBob@lemmy.ca 33 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The first of these I remember is the "cheese worm" back in the 90s. It closed ports and did some other basic security things and left a message in the sys.log to eat more cheese.

[–] don@lemm.ee 20 points 5 months ago

Chaotic good mode enabled.

[–] AlternatePersonMan@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago

someone is my hero.