Thread: Self-assembling viruses

Hi all,

Here's an article from last August about computer viruses assembling
themselves from other bits of code: www.economist.com/node/21560839

While the concept isn't new, it offers a new twist. It doesn't rely on
encryption. Instead, the virus hides in plain sight by appearing as
nothing more than a calculator or a gadget within a word processor program.

More info to bolster the feasibility of Virus. =)

\_/
DED

Nice!

Speaking of Virus, I was pondering the strains and the evolution. And have
a couple more strains to put up specifically what I envision as the logical
evolution of the meta identity concept.

___
>From my T989
On Feb 6, 2013 7:02 AM, "DED" > wrote:

> **
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Here's an article from last August about computer viruses assembling
> themselves from other bits of code: www.economist.com/node/21560839
>
> While the concept isn't new, it offers a new twist. It doesn't rely on
> encryption. Instead, the virus hides in plain sight by appearing as
> nothing more than a calculator or a gadget within a word processor program.
>
> More info to bolster the feasibility of Virus. =)
>
> \_/
> DED
>
>

John,

So far as I know Vampire Fleets is the best resource out there for Virus. Besides the out-and-out exposition in the background material, there's a fairly detailed discussion of the various Virus-infected computer systems that rule Promise Downport and how they run the city. There are a number of different strains present and the descriptions give a pretty good idea of how they interact and conflict with each other- in particular, the suspicion and hostility between Puppeteer strains and older forms of Virus.

As far as I know there's no canon description of how psions fight Virus. My personal perspective on it, based on material from VF, is that Virus is alive but insane. The contact should probably feel more like a telepathic struggle to take over a conscious being's body than a mental hacking session, and I would emphasize distracting and trapping the Virus more than I would "cracking&quot

--- In , Jeff Dougherty wrote:
> Bonus question: what if, on a really bad roll, the Virus can actually infect the psion's brain? Now *there's* an idea that would send certain parties into apoplexy.

That'd be the "Mr. Smith" strain... ;)

(Seriously. Bane from the Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions is totally what you'd end up with, assuming the Virus strain was malevolent).

On 8 Apr 2013 at 0:13, wrote:

> Hmph! Virus is impossible. All self-respecting Traveller players know that

Not impossible. Just impossible *as described*.

For a contemporary equivalent, *as described* a Virus-equivalent
would be able to infect my system via my email program (which
operates by default in *text* mode, not HTML mode) without my
clicking on any links.

Going from transponders to the rest of the ship is equally bogus
unless insanely stuopid design features are involved (ie there's no
rational reason to allow programming commands to ggo *from* the
transponder to the rest of the ship's systems, and lots of very
*good* reasons to block it)

My "plausible" virus works rather differently.

The "virus" gets sent to the transponder. The Symbelline
circuitry/organism acting in accordance with them *physically* moves
along the wires to other ship systems, grabbing resources for growth
as it does so.

Every time it enocounters circuitry it replicates the functionality
of each part, then as it has completely replicated a unit or
subsystem or whatever, it consumes the original for resources and
starts simplifying the circuit (most designs using ICs have a lot of
unused functionality. That is sections of the chip or logic that
never get used in that circuit).

So it slowly spreads, replacing circuitry with more efficient units
and using the freed resources to expand its own functionality.

If you catch on early enough and can cut the wires it's harder for it
to spread and you may retain control of portions of the ship. Or not.

This gives something whose *effects* are mostly similar to the
published material but doesn't have the stupidity of code that can
transfer over the wrong sort of connections and infect arbitary types
of processor.

It's also scarier because it opens the possibility of soome version
of the virus managing to control humans if it can *physically* get an
infectious "body" into contact with the human (expect lots of dead or
nessily not-dead humans while this sort of virus "learns". Once it
does.... )

--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com

--- In , dcndcn13@... wrote:
>
> Hmph! Virus is impossible. All self-respecting Traveller players know that
>

Damn right! Let's find the author responsible and tar and feather him! :)

Wouldn't even go as far as "as described," though perhaps you have a
citation in mind? Too many CT'ers especially made too many assumptions and
extensions of current technology (or the archaic paradigm, as it were).

___
>From my T989
On Apr 8, 2013 7:36 AM, <> wrote:

> **
>
>
> On 8 Apr 2013 at 0:13, wrote:
>
> > Hmph! Virus is impossible. All self-respecting Traveller players know
> that
>
> Not impossible. Just impossible *as described*.
>
> For a contemporary equivalent, *as described* a Virus-equivalent
> would be able to infect my system via my email program (which
> operates by default in *text* mode, not HTML mode) without my
> clicking on any links.
>
> Going from transponders to the rest of the ship is equally bogus
> unless insanely stuopid design features are involved (ie there's no
> rational reason to allow programming commands to ggo *from* the
> transponder to the rest of the ship's systems, and lots of very
> *good* reasons to block it)
>
> My "plausible&quot; virus works rather differently.
>
> The "virus" gets sent to the transponder. The Symbelline
> circuitry/organism acting in accordance with them *physically* moves
> along the wires to other ship systems, grabbing resources for growth
> as it does so.
>
> Every time it enocounters circuitry it replicates the functionality
> of each part, then as it has completely replicated a unit or
> subsystem or whatever, it consumes the original for resources and
> starts simplifying the circuit (most designs using ICs have a lot of
> unused functionality. That is sections of the chip or logic that
> never get used in that circuit).
>
> So it slowly spreads, replacing circuitry with more efficient units
> and using the freed resources to expand its own functionality.
>
> If you catch on early enough and can cut the wires it's harder for it
> to spread and you may retain control of portions of the ship. Or not.
>
> This gives something whose *effects* are mostly similar to the
> published material but doesn't have the stupidity of code that can
> transfer over the wrong sort of connections and infect arbitary types
> of processor.
>
> It's also scarier because it opens the possibility of soome version
> of the virus managing to control humans if it can *physically* get an
> infectious "body" into contact with the human (expect lots of dead or
> nessily not-dead humans while this sort of virus "learns". Once it
> does.... )
>
> --
> Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
> shadow at shadowgard dot com
>
>
>