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From: FASTEDDY@MATRIX.GSFC.NASA.GOV (John McMahon)
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: "Viruses" that mutate...
Message-ID: <0007.8911271233.AA05551@ge.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 22 Nov 89 21:11:12 GMT
Sender: Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@IBM1.CC.Lehigh.EDU>
Lines: 37
Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu

***> From:    Peter Zukoski <Zukoski1@hypermail.apple.com>
***> Subject: followup on mind viruses
***>
***> Dear virus-folk: thanks for all the responses to Richard Dawkins
***> questions. Here's some further thoughts from Richard on the topic of
***> mind viruses...He and I would be interested in your opinions, especially
***> on evolving/mutating virus technology. Has anyone seen viri which
***> evolve, or mutate in response to the environment which it is in? Or viri
***> which recognize and "use" other viri which might be present?

The recent attacks by the WANK worm on the "World DECnet" was an example
of a program that "evolved" and "mutated" as it propagated through the
network.

It "evolved" such that it added to itself when it learned a new common
username to attack.  Each new common username added an additional line
to the code, thus making the worm a little bit "smarter".

It "mutated" such that the program would delete certain routines if the
program determined that certain conditions applied.  These conditions
were related to it's discovery on the network.

Admittably, these are simple examples.  But they may be an indication of
things to come.

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