What Is the Morris Worm? History and Modern Impact
A hacker launched the Morris worm in 1988, and many people consider it one of the very first public attacks on computer systems.
Morris worm code poses no threat today. Modern, well-defended computers are immune to the vulnerabilities the hacker exploited.
But even so, the worm inspired generations of hackers. Modern hackers still use worms, and they can be devastating. And it made thousands of people deeply suspicious of the information we store and share online.
Let's dig into how worms work, and then we'll unpack how the Morris worm got its name and how it continues to impact modern programming.
How do worms work?
Every computer needs an operating system. This program runs in the background, and you may never notice how it works or what it does. But it's critical to your performance, and you can't turn it off. A worm targets vulnerabilities in operating systems.
Attackers have used worms to deliver some of the most destructive forms of malware, including ransomware programs that encrypt all the files on a server.
Years ago, hackers spread these worms via floppy disks and other types of storage. You'd pop the disk into your computer, and the program would run in the background. You wouldn't know anything was wrong until your computer started acting up.
Now, worms could come to you via:
- Email. You get a note from someone you trust, and it comes with an attachment it encourages you to click. When you do, a file runs. Your computer starts sending out more copies of the worm via email.
- USB. Someone gives you a storage stick, and every file on it is infected. Click on even one, and the program begins to run.
When infected by a worm, your computer works overtime to send out more copies. You might notice sluggish performance, or your computer could go down altogether.
Worms are relatively common. Wikipedia lists more than 40 of them. Many more may exist, but they just haven't been formally named quite yet.
Meet the Morris worm's creator
Think of the Morris worm as the grandfather of every single worm out there. The Morris worm might also have inspired other nasty web attacks, such as viruses.
The Morris worm was created by a 23-year-old student at Cornell named Robert Morris. He'd spent his early life working with computers and designing code, and while he was at school, he was known as a bit of a prankster. This isn’t completely surprising—the recipe for a perfect hacker involves cleverness and the willingness to cause a little trouble.
Morris was working in a very different environment than the one we use today. In 1998, there were fewer than 100,000 connected machines, and most organisations that were online seemed to trust one another. There were few passwords and other hoops to jump through to get connected. Everyone really wanted to get along.
Safety issues are rampant in a system like this, and Morris intended to point them out. He only meant for his worm to expose how quickly an attack could unfold, but he made a devastating coding mistake.
- Query. The worm asked each computer it encountered if it already had a copy of the code.
- Respond to "No." If the computer wasn't infected, the code would execute.
- Respond to "Yes." If the computer was infected, the worm wouldn't copy.
This code seems innocent, but Morris didn't want clever programmers to work arou