Mar 14 2008Neat: What Computer Malware Looks Like
This is what some of the more famous malware looks like in 3D (that particular picture is the PWSLineage trojan).
Malwarez is a series of visualization of worms, viruses, trojans and spyware code. For each piece of disassembled code, API calls, memory addresses and subroutines are tracked and analyzed. Their frequency, density and grouping are mapped to the inputs of an algorithm that grows a virtual 3D entity. Therefore the patterns and rhythms found in the data drive the configuration of the artificial organism.
Well neato, that's not what I thought they'd look like at all. I was expecting they'd look more along the lines of a dragon crossed with a millipede crossed with an octopus but with way more eyes, laser beams, and driving a tank. Or, I dunno, maybe just a wicked coldsore.
Four more after the jump, including Stormy, MyDoom, IRCbot, and Virutmytob.
IRCbot
MyDoom
Virutmytob
Stormy
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Reader Comments
1. guate6 - March 14, 2008 6:09 PM
Man, these things sure have evolved since I started working on computers years ago...back then, they were simple code. Now these things have taken form...between this and that nanobot article posted earlier this week, the robot apocalypse and/or zombie apocalypse can't be too far away...I give it four years.
2. Sesmu - March 14, 2008 7:08 PM
Ten bucks says MS Juan looks like a sombrero.
3. Rithly - March 14, 2008 7:09 PM
And so now you can SEE the viruses that are destroying your computer.
4. natalie - March 14, 2008 9:16 PM
it looks like a science project made out of used q-tips
5. guate6 - March 14, 2008 9:58 PM
I love how uncultured people refer to things. Such as "a sombrero," which translates to a hat. The "sombrero" is actually called a "charro." But whatever...I am not guiltless at having called things something they're not.
6. laz - March 15, 2008 9:18 AM
good to throw in the insult though, huh guate6?
7. Sesmu - March 15, 2008 12:13 PM
-_-
Sombrero according to Merriam-Webster.
"an often high-crowned hat of felt or straw with a very wide brim worn especially in the Southwest and Mexico"
I was using the English word sombrero. Wasn't trying to sound clever by throwing some Espanol in there. But lets not argue a moot point.
My bet is still on the table btw. I want to see MS Juan rendered.
8. guate6 - March 15, 2008 6:49 PM
Fair enough...and I must say I might like to see that one too.
9. Pat - March 16, 2008 7:13 PM
they all look like weed to me.
10. Mark - March 17, 2008 9:55 AM
I bet if you ran Vista's code through it you would get a picture of Bill Gates shitting on the Earth
11. chronic - March 17, 2008 11:23 AM
@9. me too. especially Stormy
12. alexeyt - March 18, 2008 6:39 PM
was anyone else thinking "I'm Stormy!" "I'm Bizarro Stormy!"?
13. Sava - March 30, 2008 12:45 PM
The person who made them was either bored or to bored :)
Anyway they look nice