a good reading about Stuxnet

[Binarycow]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/07/how-digital-detectives-deciphered-stuxnet/all/1

very scary indeed.

 

[Lithium381]

i'm only halfway through, but that's nuts!

 

[cirrrocco]

It is an amazing article.. read it this morning and I was floored.

 

[Binarycow]

yupe, man the cybertronic future is scary. It's like the elite few have the technical knowledge that they basically can wipe out many others who can do nothing but helplessly hope by luck that they would be spared. It used to be that everyone could just pick up a pick fork to defend himself against the enemies no matter how powerful they were, at least they had a fighting chance no matter how small that would be. Here something like Stuxnet, I don't know, that stuff ultimately can only be no good no matter who originated them.

 

[Modelworks]

A nuclear facility that allows flash drives, they deserve to be a target. Stuxnet just combined a lot of known exploits with insider knowledge. Happens quite regularly but companies keep it quiet.
TDL4 rootkit is a lot more of a threat to the world than something like stuxnet. It infects windows 7 , 32bit and 64bit, bypasses driver signing requirements, and makes itself invisible to detection software, silently doing damage in the background. It is kind of funny because it removes other malware on the system to keep the user from noticing something is wrong. It patches the drivers windows uses to interface the hard drive so the OS is always communicating through the malware and of course it tells the OS everything is fine, no need to look for anything wrong here.
http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/tdss4-part-1/

 

[Binarycow]

A nuclear facility that allows flash drives, they deserve to be a target. Stuxnet just combined a lot of known exploits with insider knowledge. Happens quite regularly but companies keep it quiet.
TDL4 rootkit is a lot more of a threat to the world than something like stuxnet. It infects windows 7 , 32bit and 64bit, bypasses driver signing requirements, and makes itself invisible to detection software, silently doing damage in the background. It is kind of funny because it removes other malware on the system to keep the user from noticing something is wrong. It patches the drivers windows uses to interface the hard drive so the OS is always communicating through the malware and of course it tells the OS everything is fine, no need to look for anything wrong here.
http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/tdss4-part-1/

see, occasionally it makes me appreciate how awesome it is to be an unimportant-inconsequential average Joe with almost nothing in my checking and savings acct. Malware like this would never be written to specifically target people like me, it's not cost-effective. Sleep a bit easier at night I guess.

 

[Balt]

Great link. Thanks.

 

[halik]

The analysis by mcafee or whoever was mindblowing also

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Nerd boner alert.... Can't wait to read this. Thanks OP!

 

[manimal]

I see a Philip K Dick novel in there somewhere.

 

[Texashiker]

Welcome to the new landscape of warfare

 

[Macamus Prime]

This is the 1st cyberweapon detected. There may have been thousands more before this one.

Also, the assassins on motorbikes is just insane. And, given how the virus spread via flash drive, Stuxnet had to have been created by someone local and in the area; the Israeli's. They can't fly fighter jets over the plants and bomb them, so they issue a cyber attack - good on them, they are trying to move away from the collateral damage model.

 

[Tsavo]

This is the 1st cyberweapon detected. There may have been thousands more before this one.

Also, the assassins on motorbikes is just insane. And, given how the virus spread via flash drive, Stuxnet had to have been created by someone local and in the area; the Israeli's. They can't fly fighter jets over the plants and bomb them, so they issue a cyber attack - good on them, they are trying to move away from the collateral damage model.

No doubt it was Isreal because they are the only player of opposing interest that has hardware of their own upon which to test the software.

 

[dfuze]

Thanks for the link, still reading but very informative

 

[xaeniac]

carried out by the mossad

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

After reading this, I'm convinced it was Israel with perhaps the help/cooperation of the US and Germany.

So I guess the big question is: Was Stuxnet successful or a failure in it's mission? Unfortunately we may never know for sure.

 

[Zargon]

very nice article

 

[Kev]

amazing article. I love wired

 

[PingviN]

A nuclear facility that allows flash drives, they deserve to be a target.

It was probably smuggled in by an employee. Flash drives are small, if you want to get one in, you will.

 

[p0nd]

Wow, I'm reading the wiki because Wired is blocked at work. I had heard about Stuxnet but didn't know it was so fascinating. Thanks OP i'll check out the link when I get home.

 

[KlokWyze]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/07/how-digital-detectives-deciphered-stuxnet/all/1

very scary indeed.

Thanks for the link! Just read the whole thing in about an hour.... very well written and informative. So people pay $50K - $500K for zero-days? Looks like I need to refocus my skills.

Then if I get caught Semantic or the CIA will just hire me up to combat the Chinese cyber-horde. :awe:

 

[Zeze]

From Wiki:

Russian computer security firm Kaspersky Lab concluded that the sophisticated attack could only have been conducted "with nation-state support"[18] and it has been speculated that Israel and the United States may have been involved.[19]
In May 2011, the PBS program Need To Know cited a statement by Gary Samore, White House Coordinator for Arms Control and Weapons of Mass Destruction, in which he said, "we're glad they [the Iranians] are having trouble with their centrifuge machine and that we - the US and its allies - are doing everything we can to make sure that we complicate matters for them" offered "winking acknowledgement" of US involvement in Stuxnet.[20] According to the British Daily Telegraph, a showreel that was played at a retirement party for the head of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), Gabi Ashkenazi, included references to Stuxnet as one of his operational successes as the IDF chief of staff.[21]

 

[airdata]

Stuxnet is very scary actually.

I don't think anybody knows how long it's actually been in the wild. I believe it was already present for a long time before it was discovered.

I've also read that it's available online for people to tinker with as well.

 

[Zeze]

Stuxnet is very scary actually.

I don't think anybody knows how long it's actually been in the wild. I believe it was already present for a long time before it was discovered.

I've also read that it's available online for people to tinker with as well.

Easy to find and download. Third google result of 'stuxnet download'.

 

[Lemon law]

Yup stuxnet is really dangerous, it wrecked every Uranium separation centrifuge in my house, all zero of them.

Beyond that, I don't think it damaged Iran all that much and by now I assume Iran is monitoring frequencies of its siemen controllers by independent means.

And at the end of the article, there are still two modules remaining in stuxnet to be examined and inspected, but first they have to break their encryption.

The last question in my mind is can and will stuxnet be traced back to the code authors? And will the international community classify such future attacks as a war crime.