the Morris Worm

securityops culture

The 1988 self-replicating program that became the first worm to disrupt the early internet at scale.

Written by Cornell student Robert Tappan Morris, it exploited holes in sendmail, fingerd, and weak passwords, and a flawed reinfection check made it replicate so aggressively that it crippled thousands of machines. Morris became the first person convicted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the incident spurred the creation of the first CERT.

Also known as: Internet Worm, Morris worm, the Great Worm

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