

First Botnet of Linux Web Servers Discovered - dimas
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/12/linux_zombies_push_malware/

======
bravura
"But in addition to running an Apache webserver to dish up benign content,
they've also been hacked to run a second webserver known as nginx, which
serves malware."

This poor writing, especially the use of the non-restrictive relative clause
("which", not "that"), suggests that nginx is designed to serve malware almost
exclusively.

~~~
texel
"nginx is a specialized second webserver that can serve any kind of malware"

~~~
ars
Are you quoting? Because that is not true. It's just a webserver, general
purpose use.

~~~
texel
I took my inspiration from here:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/9a5l7/xml_is_a_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/9a5l7/xml_is_a_specialized_alphabet_that_can_capture/)

Yes, I'm aware... I use nginx every day at work. Great little webserver :)

------
NathanKP
Is this a first linux botnet or a first web server botnet? The article makes
it slightly difficult to figure out which it is.

In a way it only makes sense for bots to take over webservers as that gives
them a better gateway to hundreds of other clients. I'm surprised we haven't
heard of botnets like this years ago. Maybe they were just too well hidden
before.

~~~
duskwuff
The latter, if either. Linux botnets have existed for eons... I remember
seeing one in 2004, and I'm sure they existed much earlier than that.

------
caffeine
I think this article is a joke, no?

I mean, "a second webserver known as nginx, which serves malware," cooked up
by evil Russians, deviously operating on port 8080?

Hehe. I think it's quite good, actually.

------
DarrenMills
So if linux and macs got malware and viruses as often as PCs who would be out
front? Microsoft should hire people to start writing mac viruses.

~~~
zyb09
as PCs? you mean as Windows. Anyway isn't there a IE5 version or something for
mac? That thing should could easily be classified as malware for mac written
by microsoft.

~~~
duskwuff
There was, but it was discontinued by Microsoft in 2005 when Safari was
released.

