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I remember once, when I had an unpatched computer overrun by hostile viruses that rendered it unusable, wondering if one of the botnet-type viruses that want to
by commandlinefan 8y ago
I remember once, when I had an unpatched computer overrun by hostile viruses that rendered it unusable, wondering if one of the botnet-type viruses that want to take over your computer and use it without being undetected would someday get smart enough to recognize other viruses and automatically remove their competition so that they could continue to silently infect you. Like a biological virus, one that kills the host is an ineffective one - they want to use the hosts resources while not being noticed. I wonder if this is something like that - virus writers starting to get smarter about cleaning up behind them and keeping out competing malware.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- tzakrajs 8y agoI've heard rumors that nation states will keep infected machines from crashing or attracting attention so that system administrators stay away from their beachhead.
- vectorEQ 8y agobotnets often uninstall other botnets, and patch vulnerabilities they use to get in, to close the door behind them.
- iodiniemetra 8y agoThis has been happening for years, especially in the "botnet community". Either someone takes down someone else's botnet through the same bug and patches it or figures out a bug in the botnet and caps it for themselves (for example, getting ops in the CNC channel). I think Microsoft has even done in cooperation this a few times; it's dubious legal territory. You can see some historical examples, both recent (Mirai had some viruses that went around closing the bug), as well as further in the past (there's one that escapes me, it must have been around 2010?) I wish I could cite more, I'm going to spend some time researching this and make a list for myself, it's surprisingly interesting!
- drewmol 8y agoAnd of course they did, frustratingly that behavior is industry standard even outside of malware.