Morris Lim

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

This article was published in between the release of Code Red and Code Red II. In this article, the author briefly described how this worm functions and infects computers with Microsoft’s Internet Information Servers by scanning on the Internet and delivers the worm to other vulnerable computers using port 80. It also mentions this worm is time sensitive; all its attacks are directed by the system clock and follow in a predetermined schedule. The article mentions the primary target was the White House; however, the White House got rid of the problem by redirecting its IP address. However the damage the worm did to the whole Internet and those Microsoft Windows based servers was enormous. The access to the internet was slowed down, and some of the systems were frozen. It also prompted users to quickly get their systems patched. Interestingly enough, even though Code Red II was launched in August, in this article, which was published in the end of July, the author is already aware of the presence of different versions of Code Red that were spreading on the Internet.

In the very end of this article, it also mentions that Microsoft is trying to find out faster ways of delivering new updates and patches. However, we know that Microsoft did not come up with a satisfactory solution during the Blaster worm and Sasser worm.

Reference:

Code Red: Is This the Apocalypse? Michelle Delio, Wired News, 7/30/2001

URL:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,45681-0.html