Welchia I read about this in the latest issue of Scientific American, on my flight to Washington, DC. I had previously heard of the results of this worm -- but hadn't heard it's name. It was released into the wild just after the Blaster worm and the Sobig.F virus -- so while the world was busily making Blaster and Sobig.F celebrities, Welchia slipped quietly into systems. Blaster and Sobig.F were a pain. They brought down computers, affected networks and made themselves known. Welchia on the other hand, slipped in quietly and had a few profound purposes in life:
  • it forces the host computer to contact Microsoft's Windows Update website and download a patch for the very hole it exploits (incidentally, the Blaster worm also exploits the same hole)
  • it scans the host computer for the Blaster worm and removes it
  • it scans the local network, and attempts to procreate
  • It contains code that will delete itself on January 1, 2004
  • It installs a small file transfer server on the host.
    • The last bullet points to Welchia's nefarious intentions. While it appears to be a good worm, it leaves a backdoor entry for its creator. The SciAm article raises some interesting ideas -- it contends that worms are evolving to the point where they're starting to compete against one another for host systems. The article also suggests that this may be a way of combatting future malcode exploits -- creating similar code to search and destroy malicious code running rampant on the net. Pretty cool idea -- and quite Matrix-like!

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