RE: Update to "Code Red" Worm. Its a date bomb, not time.

From: c0ncept (c0nceptat_private)
Date: Thu Jul 19 2001 - 14:36:15 PDT

  • Next message: matt sommer: "Re: Update to "Code Red" Worm. Its a date bomb, not time."

    	How many confirmed infections are setting on 410+ Meg connections?
    	How many of them have systems busses even capable of saturating multiple
    infections?
    
    	--c0ncept
    
    
    [snip]
    :Remember, each host can be infected multiple times, meaning that a single
    :host can send 410MB * # of infections.
    [snip]
    
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Marc Maiffret [mailto:marcat_private]
    Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2001 1:55 PM
    To: Vuln-Dev; SECURITY-BASICS
    Subject: Update to "Code Red" Worm. Its a date bomb, not time.
    
    
    Thanks to Eric from Symantec for tossing us a note about the worm being Date
    based and not Time based.
    
    We made an error in our last analysis and said the worm would start
    attacking whitehouse.gov based on a certain time. In reality its based on a
    date (the 20th UTC) which is tomorrow.
    
    If the worm infects your system between the 1st and the 19th it will attempt
    to deface the infected servers web page or try to propogate itself to other
    systems. On the 20th all infected threads will attempt to attack
    www.whitehouse.gov. This seems to continue until the worm is removed from
    the infected system.
    
    Any new infection that happens between the 20th and 28th will most likely be
    someone "hand infecting" your system as all other worms should be attacking
    whitehouse.gov. If for some reason you are infected between the 20th and the
    28th then the worm will begin attacking whitehouse.gov without trying to
    infect other systems. This attack will continue indefinitly.
    
    The following are rough numbers, but we felt that it was important to
    illustrate the affects this worm can _possibly_ have.
    
    The worm has a timeline like this:
    
    day of the month:
    1-19: infect other hosts using the worm
    20-27: attack whitehouse.gov forever
    28-end of month: eternal sleep
    
    Presumably, this could restart at any point in a new month again.
    
    Also, some stats for the attack:
    
    Each infection has 100 threads
    Each thread is going to send about 100k, a byte at a time, which means you
    have a (40 for ip + 1 for each byte) which means you have 4.1 megs of data
    per thread
    100 threads * 4.1megs = 410 Megabytes
    This will be repeated again every 4.5 hours or so
    
    Remember, each host can be infected multiple times, meaning that a single
    host can send 410MB * # of infections.
    
    We have had reports between 15 thousand and 196 thousand unique hosts
    infected with the "Code Red" worm. However, there has been cross infection
    and we have heard reports of at least 300+ thousand infections/instances
    (machines with multiple infections etc..) of this worm.
    
    If there are 300 thousand infections then that means you have (300,000 * 410
    megabytes) that is going to be attempted to be flooded against
    whitehouse.gov every 4 and a half hours. If this is true and the worm "works
    as advertised" then the fact that whitehouse.gov goes offline is only the
    begining of what _can_ possibly happen...
    
    ----
    
    I am actually writing this part of the eMail about 45 minutes after the
    first part because our Internet connection here in california has been going
    up and down. We have also heard reports of internet connectivity going down
    in parts of northern california and new york.
    
    Signed,
    eEye Digital Security
    T.949.349.9062
    F.949.349.9538
    http://eEye.com/Retina - Network Security Scanner
    http://eEye.com/Iris - Network Traffic Analyzer
    http://eEye.com/SecureIIS - Stop known and unknown IIS vulnerabilities
    



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