Skip to main content

Stuxnet - The First Digital Weapon


                    Stuxnet is a file type worm which exploits zero-day vulnerabilities to attack computers. This is considered as the very first digital weapon that not only harms to computers but also the physical aspects which run by computer commands. It especially targets on centrifuges which produce enrich uranium to make nuclear weapons. It was first found as a result of US and Israel project to derail or delay Iran’s process of nuclear weapon manufacture.



How does it infect?
               The worm is spread by USB drives and it harms to the machine which runs on Microsoft Windows platform. It pretends to seem like reliable by presenting a digital certification and it cannot be identified by a malware detecting tools or security experts. Stuxnet search for the PLC (Programmable logical controller) which is the manufacture of the Siemens. PLC is used to make industrial machine controlled by interact with the computers.


What it does?
               It compromises with PLC and collects all the information regarding the functionality of the machine. And then starts to spin the machine too fast more than usual for too long. Unless the problem is discovered, PLC shows that everything runs perfectly. Consequently, the Long process of overproduction is caused to machine damage and lower quality product.


What if it does not find PLC?
               If it is not targeting a machine or cannot search for PLC, the worm does not do anything. If it can access the Internet, it will update itself to its most recent version.

Even though it was found as spread through USB it can be spread via the Internet when some modification is done in exploit code.

"Cyber War is the battle field of now" - Geoff Livingston
              

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Change Language in Google Account

When we create an email address, sometimes we do not consider the language preferences. Afterward, when we log in to a google account, context will be shown as unfamiliar. So we can change the language preferences of google account by following steps.  1.  Click on the Google profile and select google account 2.  Select data & personalization settings. 3. Scroll down and go to general preferences for the web. And click language. 4. If you need to change the default language, click on the pen sign. 5. If you want to add more languages, click on add other languages.
Post a Comment
Read more

Synchronizer Token Pattern

Synchronizer token pattern is one of the prevention methods for Cross-Site Request Forgery ( CSRF ). It uses a value called CSRF token which is unique for a session identifier. When the user login to a website, the server generates a random value called token for a particular session. The token is saved on the server as well as the browser (after obtained from the server). PHP identifies the session using the session variable ‘PHPSESSID’ which is also stored in the browser as the cookie to identify a particular session. The server validates the user when each request is made, via comparing the token value in the server and token value in the browser. Through this write up how synchronizer token pattern is implemented and how does it works will be described.  (Click on the images to view clearly) Source code of the implemented program can be downloaded from here .  I have implemented a login page called index.html to enroll a user to the server. T...
Post a Comment
Read more

CSRF - Cross Site Request Fogery

Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) is an attack where the legitimate user trapped by an unauthorized user to perform an unintended task to a website where they are authenticated. Since HTTP is a stateless protocol, cookies are used to validate the request agent. Once the user login to a website, it will not require to type the username and password for each attempt. Hence, for the server to identify the user, the server generates a session identifier and sends it as a set-cookie header to the client browser with the very first response. The cookie set by the server will be saved in the client browser and, the cookie will be sent along with every request made to the server (Where the domain and path are matched). However, the server does not check any other attribute but session identifier. Although the request is made from another client, the website only verifies whether the requesting user is already authenticated or not, using a cookie. For example, if a person logged in...
Post a Comment
Read more