The discovery of the first Linux worm to go feral has sent a stark message to the Linux community not to be complacent about protecting their computer systems.
The worm, called Ramen, was first spotted in the 鈥渨ild鈥� by Russian virus experts Kaspersky Lab in Moscow on Thursday. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the first malicious programme for Linux operating systems found in the wild,鈥� says Denis Zenkin of Kaspersky.
It is capable of replicating itself across the internet and has already spread to several web sites including NASA鈥檚 Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and a university web site in Texas.
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鈥淚t鈥檚 not an epidemic by any means,鈥� says Graham Cluely of antivirus software company Sophos. 鈥淏ut it is quite unusual for a Linux virus to get into the wild.鈥�
This is mainly because only a handful of such viruses exist. Until now, Linux has been seen as an insignificant target compared with Microsoft Windows. Since the majority of computers around the world use Windows, a virus attacking it is more likely to have a large impact.
Ramen only affects two versions of the Linux operating system, both run by Red Hat (versions 6.2 and 7.0). The worm exploits three security loopholes in the systems to gain root access to the server and make changes to the system.
The security holes were discovered more than a year ago, says Zenkin, but despite the fact that software patches are available Ramen鈥檚 victims had failed to install them.
He says the irony is that, even though Linux users are often critical of the security of Windows products, they also tend to be very complacent about their own security, falsely believing that Linux is invincible. Ramen is their wake-up call, he says.
Once Ramen has infiltrated a company鈥檚 server it releases its payload, defacing the site鈥檚 main web page with the message: 鈥淗ackers looooooooooooove noodles,鈥� signed by the 鈥淩ameN Crew鈥�.
鈥淧eople using Linux tend to be more technical than PC users,鈥� says Cluely. 鈥淏ut that鈥檚 changing.鈥� It is gradually becoming more of a user-based system rather than an operating system just for geeks, he says. And that makes it likely that Ramen could be the first of many.