An unkillable computer virus - allegedly....

dafuzz

Myranda said:

Hasn't this been known since USB (or probably since floppy disk)? Want to upload a virus/malware/spyware/porn to a company who has ninja external security? drop some usb or foppies in the carpark marked with "payroll" or "private" and human nature will mean someone sticks it in a machine and BAM! GOTCHA!

You wouldn't need to write anything on it. Just leave a USB stick or DVDRW or anything you like lying about and somebody will look at what's on it hoping for pr0n

imalone

PolarityMan said:

imalone said:

What is potentially possible is this: http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2010-03-22 (if the camera is set up to read QR codes and do something based on them). What is being suggested is more like this: http://www.ansible.co.uk/writing/c-b-faq.html

More bulshit

Which one? The basilisk thing is a science fiction piece, basically a joke, and yes it's ridiculous (the clue if you didn't notice is it's set in the year 2000, which was a while ago). The connection to this topic is that you are targeting a complex range of systems which aren't even set up to interpret the data in a way that exposes them to a vulnerability. I also remember finding it entertaining when I first read it, hence posting it here.
The QR code on the other hand. Build (no, don't do this I'm not responsible for anyone doing this and it's been suggested by others before) a website which targets an exploit on a mobile phone browser. Now get a tinyurl or similar that redirects to it and put that in a QR code. Print this out and stick a few hundred of them around the tube or other metropolitan area, preferably on real adverts so it looks like some type of guerilla marketing campaign (or is mistaken for the products QR code). See how many hits you get.