Mydoom, Doomjuice, Mytob Open Source Viruses

W32/Mydoom virus that was unleashed in January 2004. A month later, another virus, W32/Doomjuice was distributed. When bot writers sought to add a mass distribution feature to DoomJuice, they turned to MyDoom, and the result was a new strain of virus called Mytob. The Mydoom family has hundreds of variants, significantly more than a typical malware family, and that most likely due to the widespread availability of its source code.

Hackers are starting also creating tools and distributing it freely. Documented copies of some rootkits that have been used in Trojan horses are available online.  These days, few virus writers start from scratch these days.

The open-source code-sharing model has contributed to the rise of malware according to some analysts. With source-code sharing, we are seeing massive virus families of today.  Virus and Bot writers are using popular open-source software like CVS that lets developers keep track of the software version they are working on. A botwriter will use the software to make change to the bot code, and re-upload it in the same way a project manager would use CVS.

Open source is a wonderful thing from the standpoint of building up a community to help troubleshoot and magnify development efforts.  But on the other hand the same technology can be used by the bad guys.

Updated On: 06.07.18