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Computer Virus Aboard the ISS
Posted by
timothy
on Wed Aug 27, 2008 07:54 AM
from the like-a-little-piece-of-home dept.
from the like-a-little-piece-of-home dept.
chrb writes "BBC News is reporting that laptops taken to the International Space Station by NASA astronauts are infected with the Gammima.AG worm. The laptops have no net connection; officials suspect the worm may have been transferred via a USB flash drive owned by an astronaut. NASA have said this isn't the first time computer viruses had travelled into space."
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Solid proof!!!! (Score:2, Insightful)
That they need IT staff on the ISS.
Even astronauts are not smart enough to maintain and repair their computers.
Honestly though, Why the hell dont the laptops have anti virus software? if they are going to run a OS that is targeted by the bulk of viruses out there then it's dumb to send it up without AV software installed.
There is no reason for a email/nutritional PC to not run AV.
Re:Solid proof!!!! (Score:4, Insightful)
Wow, someone who actually believes AV software stops viruses effectively?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
They stop really old Viruses like that one effectively, even CLamAV detects and cleans that one.
so yeah, AV would have prevented this one, it would have been effective.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
EVEN clamav?
Man, clamav is better than most.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
EVEN clamav?
Man, clamav is better than most.
How can I persuade my info security department of that given things like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ClamAV#Comparisons [wikipedia.org] ?
Re:Solid proof!!!! (Score:5, Funny)
The reason NASA didn't bother with AV is because there's no pressure on their IT department. In a normal office, the IT department usually gets screamed at when computers don't work. But in space, nobody can hear you scream.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It was a pirated copy of some stuff that installed the virus.
At least we now may have real 'Space Pirates'.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh, bullshit.
Our IT dept. his head and shoulders any IT I have dealt with when I was in the private sector.
No company is going to make space probes just for science. NASA is needed for that kind of exploration.
That kind of exploration bring many benefits to you and I, benefits that would be less likely to get if a corporation were to to space exploration at this point.
I am hopeful that more and more basic launches move to the private sector, and NASA become more focused on the edge of exploration.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, I do. And it's a good question.
If public schools are so great, why can't they compete against private schools in a voucher system? If the government run schools are so much better, they'd beat out the privately run schools and we'd end up right back where we are now, right?
Microsoft has a "monopoly
Re:Solid proof!!!! (Score:4, Insightful)
Soviet-style public schools. That's great.
Even your radical freestateproject.org link wants the government to protect our rights. I presume this is done via a police and/or court system.
If our rights are so great, why is it that the only way you can get funding is to threaten to throw my ass in jail if I don't feel like paying for it?!?!
First, I have to interject here: are you planning to go into a barter system? Or are you hoping that everybody in free association will select a common medium of exchange?
The fact is that capitalism selects for profitability (obviously), and profitability is not necessarily the same thing as greatness. It's an optimization heuristic. It is not a truly optimal algorithm. NASA, and public schools, are attempts to tweak our heuristics to be more optimal. Sometimes our tweaks fail. That does not mean that all tweaks are inherently doomed to fail. Nor does it mean that we should abandon the basic heuristic of capitalism.
If, philosophically, you have a problem with tax-funded anything, then that's okay and you can explain that problem. But to claim that a tax-funded thing is bad because the market is necessarily better, you must first show that the market creates truly optimal conditions at all times in all places.
Parent
Re:Solid proof!!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Solid proof!!!! (Score:4, Informative)
Alas, while AV doesn't stop everything it is a lot better than not having it at all. A good AV scanner probably could have prevented this. Which again is why they should be giving them that little bit of training if they aren't already.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
But, with no Internet connection, the AV software doesn't really need to be kept up to date.
Not exactly true. We are mandated to keep AV software updated (I think weekly) on our machines that aren't hooked to any network at all - internal or external. This isn't mandated by the IT department or Security or anything, but the DoD. Of course, these are the same rules that require three (or was it six?) feet of space between machines (even air conditioning units) from every other.
They should just toss a CD with the latest definition updates for AV software of choice in with the regular supplies. P
Re:Solid proof!!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Solid proof!!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Honestly though, Why the hell dont the laptops have anti virus software? if they are going to run a OS that is targeted by the bulk of viruses out there then it's dumb to send it up without AV software installed.
It looks like Mark Shuttleworth [wikipedia.org] might have to make another trip up there to drop off some Ubuntu disks.
Parent
Right... (Score:5, Informative)
So, on some computers which (A) have been there for years, and (B) have no network connection over which to download virus signature updates, somehow miraculously that AV software would be up to date and able to recognize the newest trojans. I don't know what AV software that is, but I want it too ;)
Or, I know, let's send Mordac up there with each Shuttle or rocket trip, to install those updates.
Oh yeah, and you so want to be up there on your own, when the retarded AV software after a buggy update decides one or more of the following:
- some critical Windows file looks suspicious and deletes it. It happened more than once IRL.
- some piece of binary data transmitted by or to your computer looks suspiciously like an obscure, outdated SQL-Server exploit, and shuts the program down and cuts off the network connection. I can personally testify that it happened to me in WoW, never mind that it wasn't on the right port, I had no version of SQL-Server installed, and it was on a connection to WoW that was on for 2 hours now and thus unlikely to be what a virus does. Or see the infamous "STARTLOGGER"/"STOPLOGGER" idiocy that made it possible for a while to disconnect anyone from IRC (and God knows what else) if they have Norton AV installed. Yeah, you so want that on a space station's computers.
- introduces a bigger vulnerability of its own than Windows has. At least one RL mass-pwnage, and of the format-your-hdd sort at that, happened over a buffer overflow vulnerability in IIRC McAffee's firewall. Or if you look in the history of Norton's patch notes, a _lot_ of them were patching old buffer overflow vulnerabilities in their AV software.
- suddenly decides that an otherwise legitimate piece of software is too dangerous, and just deletes it. It happened to me with one AV which decided that IRC is too dangerous a place and just removed my mIRC executable. Not because of some malicious code, or even vulnerability, in that version of mIRC, but just because apparently they considered it dangerous anyway. You so want to be up on a space station when such a piece of crap decides that your, say, telnet is too dangerous and must be stopped.
- loads itself in memory twice and slows everything down to a crawl. Happened to me, with an older version of McAffee's AV. Oh, and trying to stop or uninstall it, only stopped one of the copies.
- goes paranoid about protecting the user's "privacy", and prevents legitimate logins. Again, McAffee did that for me. Half the sites were so confused by whatever it did, that they simultaneously thought I'm logged in _and_ not logged in. I was starting to develop a deep empathy for Schroedinger's cat. You surely want that kind of thing randomly happening when you're trying to log into some more important thing up there.
Heh ;)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
He might be IT for some company mandating usage.
I'm in a nearly pure-Linux environment and I've indirectly encountered a fair portion of that list either in my family, or with releasing a Windows client for our software that just happens to trip anti-virus software for no reason we could ever figure out.
AV software is so crappy it will reach out to screw you hard.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That they need IT staff on the ISS.
Even astronauts are not smart enough to maintain and repair their computers.
Honestly though, Why the hell dont the laptops have anti virus software? if they are going to run a OS that is targeted by the bulk of viruses out there then it's dumb to send it up without AV software installed.
There is no reason for a email/nutritional PC to not run AV.
AV on astronaut laptops, are you crazy?
What we need to do is send this virus to aliens!
Didn't you learn _anything_ from Independece Day?
Re:Solid proof!!!! (Score:4, Funny)
I _FAIL_
Parent
Re:Solid proof!!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Because Minix doesn't support text formatting.
Parent
Even In Space (Score:3, Funny)
Life will find a way. (Score:3, Interesting)
No antivirus? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:No antivirus? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Ob... (Score:2)
Now someone do SkyNet...
One has to ask (Score:5, Insightful)
What *Windows* is doing in space in the first place.
Re:One has to ask (Score:5, Funny)
My thoughts exactly. There is no reboot after you hit the Blue Planet Of Death...
*ducks*
Parent
Re:One has to ask (Score:5, Funny)
What *Windows* is doing in space in the first place.
I've always thought that opening Windows on a space ship is a bad thing
Parent
Re:One has to ask (Score:4, Funny)
I've always thought that opening Windows on a space ship is a bad thing
Yes, the results would prove conclusively that Windows quite literally suck(s).
Parent
Re:One has to ask (Score:4, Informative)
Isn't this an FAQ?
These laptops are convenience machines, for writing reports, spreadsheets, maybe even a little gaming.
There is no connection between the laptops and the embedded computers that actually run the ISS systems, and those computers do NOT run Windows. For that matter, they probably don't run Linux, but more likely some 10 or 15 year old Unix variation that was already well proven when the ISS bids went out.
The laptops may connect to experiments - that I don't know.
Since they are convenience machines, with no planned networking, and since when they were put out for bid, Windows was the most convenient OS to use, that's what they have. That's also not to say that Linux laptop may not make it up there, some time.
Don't pretend that there's any sort of IT architecture on the ISS for anything but the base plan. Everything is spec and bid.
I would hope that they have image CDs up there, and not just for virus removal. I can see wanting to reimage some of the laptops for each new ISS crew, and some for each new shuttle visit. I wouldn't want to keep "history" on any of them - not without backup.
Parent
I'd be willing to wager (Score:5, Funny)
If i know my star trek... (Score:4, Funny)
Kirk: Spock __ Can __ you translate __ their message? Spock: Yes Captain. The message is, "Do you wish to enlarge your penis?" Kirk: Make it so...
Parent
Re:If i know my star trek... (Score:4, Interesting)
If you knew your Star Trek, you'd know that "Make it so" was Picard's catch phrase, not Kirks.
Parent
NASA needs Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:NASA needs Linux (Score:4, Insightful)
This isn't necessarily a problem with Microsoft/Windows (although they certainly could have had a better security system), it's a problem with monoculture. Each vulnerability discovered opens up mind-bogglingly large amounts of computers to hacking, so all of the black hats are focusing their efforts on one small goal (making at least one of them succeed very quickly). This also means that exploits relying on uncommon settings (ones that rely on the target having say, two separate unrelated applications installed) are researched, where they might not have been worth the effort otherwise.
Although you have a point about big companies stepping away from Microsoft. Linux is open source, no-architecture-lock-in, and comes with so many different distros with so many different default settings, that the monoculture problem would be replaced with many-more-but-easier-to-manageable problems (think "Asteroids"). The other advantage that a polyculture OS world would offer is halting the SPREAD of the virii - if an exploit relies on someone to have XYZ system/configuration, it wouldn't necessarily be able to spread through the "fire-breaks" of ABC or DEF systems/configurations (and since most home computers nowadays are Microsoft's XYZ systems/configurations, there's no "fire breaks").
Parent
Mutations? (Score:2)
Beware the mutations that will, as bad science movies have taught us, inevitably happen. The destruction of all life on Earth is nigh.
Geez... (Score:5, Funny)
Network security really isn't that hard! It isn't like it's rocket scie... oh... nevermind...
This sounds like a great movie plot... (Score:4, Funny)
Will there be an Andromeda Strain of this Virus?
Nice one to get (Score:5, Informative)
From Symantec's site:
It then attempts to steal sensitive information for the following online games:
* ZhengTu
* Wanmi Shijie or Perfect World
* Dekaron Siwan Mojie
* HuangYi Online
* Rexue Jianghu
* ROHAN
* Seal Online
* Maple Story
* R2 (Reign of Revolution)
* Talesweaver
Oh noes, now how will the astronauts be able to play their Japanese MMO's?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Those are all Chinese/Korean MMOs. Learn2geography.
No internet?? (Score:4, Funny)
A. Oh yeah.. the USB drive.
the laptops have no net connection .. (Score:5, Insightful)
So, how do they send/receive email
"The laptops infected with the virus were used to run nutritional programs and let the astronauts periodically send e-mail back to Earth"
So, they do have a net connection
"The laptops carried by astronauts reportedly do not have any anti-virus software on them to prevent infection"
So how did they detect the 'infection' by the Gammima.AG worm
"The ISS has no direct net connection"
How do the laptops send/recieve email
--
"We are having a hard time understanding the how and why [wired.com], but everything is working", Commander Bill Sheperd Feb 2001
Re:the laptops have no net connection .. (Score:4, Insightful)
I think the summary is incorrect. From TFA:
The ISS has no direct net connection and all data traffic travelling from the ground to the spacecraft is scanned before being transmitted.
Having no network connection and no direct net connection are different things. I suspect it means that the ISS has some form of network connection to NASA's internal network, but does not have any access to the Internet.
Parent
Obligatory XKCD Reference... (Score:4, Funny)
http://www.xkcd.com/463/ [xkcd.com]
bragging rights (Score:4, Funny)
will definitely go to the first bot herder that manages to get a node on the ISS.
Jeff Goldblum planned it that way (Score:2, Funny)
That's what the laptop virus is there for - you can't be too careful.
Re:digital genocide (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, because intelligent artificial lifeforms will definitely be running windows Vista on an x86 architecture.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
> I wonder what virus was actually the first to make it to space.
Agent Smith would say Yuri Gagarin.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Come on slashdot, don't be twee, what Operating System does this 'computer virus' need to run on .. Systems Affected: Windows 2000, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP ...
You're being difficult. Anyone can see this is a cross-platform virus.