On Mon, 23 Jul 2007, Joe Greco wrote:
So how do you connect to the real IRC server, then? Remember that most
end users are not nslookup-wielding shell commandos who can figure out
whois and look up the IP.
If those users are so technically unsophisticated, do you really expect
the other users with infected computers to figure out how to disinfect
their computer and remove the Bots instead?
So you have potentially tens of thousands of infected computers with Bots
making connections to an IRC server. You know many of those bots are
well-known, old bots that have built-in removal commands. But 99% of
those users don't have the technical knowledge to clean their machine
themselves or know what a Bot is. On the other hand, you have 1% of users
are sophisticated enough to use IRC servers. And a few percentage of
overlap between the two groups.
What do you do?
a. nothing
b. terminate tens of thousands of user accounts (of users who are mostly
"innocent" except their computer was compromised)
c. block all IRC
d. redirect IRC connections to a few servers known to be used by Bots
e. something else
