Simple Virus For Teaching? 366
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the my-first-malware dept.
from the my-first-malware dept.
ed1023 writes "Currently I am teaching a 101 class on computers. It is more of a 'demystifying the black box' type of class. The current topic is computer viruses; I am looking for a virus with which I can infect the lab computers (only connected to local network, no outside network connection) that would be easy for the students to remove by hand. Can the Slashdot community point me in any directions? Is there an executable out there that would work, or do I try to write one myself, or is there one that is written that I can compile myself?"
Norton (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Norton (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't even know if I'm joking.
You missed a requirement: easy for the students to remove by hand
Note to self... (Score:4, Insightful)
Do NOT click on any links posted in the comments on this article.
DON'T DO IT! You'll get fired (Score:5, Insightful)
It sounds instructive, but you will probably get fired for lacking good judgement.
There are plenty of stories where teachers do similar things that end up getting them fired. Teaching students how to write viruses, faking a classroom kidnapping, how to plan a terrorist attack, etc.
Teaching your students how to write a virus is a classic case of bad judgement. Your superiors will tell you "What were you thinking?" and you will get let go.
Teach them verbally how viruses are created, but don't assign anything as homework.
Re:DON'T DO IT! You'll get fired (Score:3, Insightful)
It wasn't even mentioned that this is a coding class.
It is a class about computers, and he wants to teach virus removal.
Stop being such a lawyer and actually read the summary ffs.
Re:EICAR (Score:5, Insightful)
Then he's pretty stupid for wanting that. This'll look exactly the same as a real virus, and it will be easy to clean off, but it won't propagate or do nasty things like a real virus. For a computers 101 class, anything more than something like this is just asking for trouble.
Bad idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:EICAR? (Score:3, Insightful)
No, the guy wants a live virus that the students need to be able to remove, not an inert file that will simply trip an AV scanner to remove it.
Re:DON'T DO IT! You'll get fired (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah but the odds of running into BO in real life is slim to none, so if you are gonna teach them about bugs, why not something useful? I'd suggest one of the Rogue AV or security tool variants. Those infections are as common as dirt, being in the PC fixit biz I should know, and removal involves all the classics...F8 boot into safe mode, deleting the reg keys, then running a nice CD or USB key scanner (I'd of course recommend CD, as it is cheap and easy). Hell you can have them make their own AV Rescue Disc [raymond.cc] which then they can take home with them, and is a nice tool to have.
So I guess the real question is if this is gonna be a BS class, where you teach them something that the odds are virtually zipola of running into IRL, or give them a nice overview of how to DIY fixit work? Because while the Security Tool variants freak out the users they are actually pretty damned easy to kill once you know what you are looking for, and pretty much any bug short of a rootkit follows the SOP bugs like Security Tool use. IMHO it would be a good all around lesson, and as long as the machines aren't on the net not a threat. As a bonus you would give them an up close and personal glimpse at how scareware works, which sadly is becoming QUITE popular for malware writers. by knowing the signs and being able to spot the phonies they can actually help their less clueless relatives and be safer themselves.
Re:Fake it. (Score:1, Insightful)
You both fail RFC1122:1.2.2