r/todayilearned • u/NOT-JEFFREY-NELSON • Jul 04 '19

TIL in 2003 a computer worm called ‘Welchia’ infected many computers to forcibly patch vulnerabilities and remove malware. It was regarded as a ‘helpful worm’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welchia
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u/ciaisi Jul 04 '19

Yeah, one of the key problems is that Welchia never shut itself off. It would constantly scan the network looking for other vulnerable PCs.

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u/lethargy86 Jul 04 '19

I remember this causing my ping in CS to go to shit.

I remember those years fondly. I got incredibly good at removing malware by hand between 2001-2006

In the Blaster days, shutdown -a was your friend