Malware That Changed The World – Code Red

When Code Red was released into the wild in the middle of 2001 the ILOVEYOU virus (see the links at the end of this post) was still very much fresh in the memory.

Code Red differed from many of the other viruses of the time because it had a quite specific target – computers running the Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Server) Web Server.

Code Red was designed to exploit a specific bug in the software.

Once the virus had compromised a computer it would modify the pages of the website so that they displayed a message -

“Welcome to http://www.worm.com! Hacked by Chinese!”

Next, it would then seek out other computers running the same server software and repeat the action on those too.

Around 2 weeks after infecting a machine the Code Red virus was programmed to launch a DDoS attack on certain websites which included such illustrious targets as the server of the White House!

Heres more in my short series on malware that changed the world -

• The OSX/RSPlug Trojan
• The I Love You Virus
• The Blaster Worm
• Anna Kournikova
• The Melissa Virus
• The Storm Worm
• The Morris Worm
• The Conficker Virus
• The Chernobyl Virus
• SQL Slammer
• Sasser
• MyDoom
• Sobig.F
• Bagle
• The Koobface Worm
• The Zeus Virus

Related Posts

Malware That Changed The World – Koobface

Malware That Changed The World – SQL Slammer

Malware That Changed The World – The Anna Kournikova Worm

Malware That Changed The World – The Robert Morris Worm

Malware That Changed The World – MyDoom

Malware That Changed The World – The Blaster Worm

Malware That Changed The World – Sobig.F

Malware That Changed The World – CIH a.k.a. The Chernobyl Virus

Malware That Changed The World – The Conficker Virus

Malware That Changed The World – Sasser