NASA Discovers Computer Virus Aboard the International Space Station

[tblaxland]

Technically a worm, not a virus, but anyway, W32.Gammima.AG found on the ISS:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1305

Not all their laptops have anti-virus. An earlier ISS Daily Report mentioned that Volkov was using Norton Anti-Virus on a Russian laptop.

 

[tl8]

Technically a worm, not a virus, but anyway, W32.Gammima.AG found on the ISS:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1305

Not all their laptops have anti-virus. An earlier ISS Daily Report mentioned that Volkov was using Norton Anti-Virus on a Russian laptop.

This is what happens when you try and order space shuttles from dodgy sites

 

[simonpro]

Perhaps they've been too busy visiting "that" kind of site

 

[willy88]

Why don't they use Linux?

 

[Urwumpe]

Why don't they use Linux?

The Russian side laptops used Solaris as operating system, but the US Side used Windows 2000 and Windows 95 for a long time. I don't know what the current operating systems are. I would expect Windows XP on the USOS, and still Solaris for the Russian side.

 

[Jarvitä]

Wha...windows on the ISS? You're doing it wrong!

 

[YL3GDY]

It's luck that they don't use Linux. I've tried three different distros from different people, but all of them worked awfully: don't recognize RPM's, hang every even start (not a joke!) etc. But Windows XP works stable on my machine, except rare hardware fails.

 

[Jarvitä]

It's luck that they don't use Linux. I've tried three different distros from different people, but all of them worked awfully: don't recognize RPM's, hang every even start (not a joke!) etc. But Windows XP works stable on my machine, except rare hardware fails.

I'd imagine NASA would use an in-house compiled Linux kernel with their own set of custom software 100% guaranteed to work reliably, as opposed to a generic, off-the-shelf distro. That's how they do it in the MSC, anyway.

Off-topic, I find RPM and most repos that use it downright terrible. Dependency hell ahoy! Source code or .debs are much more reliable. Also, Emacs and Gnome (donning flame retardant suit)

 

[n122vu]

It's luck that they don't use Linux. I've tried three different distros from different people, but all of them worked awfully: don't recognize RPM's, hang every even start (not a joke!) etc. But Windows XP works stable on my machine, except rare hardware fails.

[off-topic]
What distros did you try, if you don't mind me asking? Just curious. I've used several different versions of several different distros with minimal issues.
[/off-topic]

Regarding OS on the shuttle, the last mission coverage I watched some time ago, I believe they had at least one older ThinkPad (Looked like T30 vintage or so) running XP. Don't know if all machines were on XP, but I know at least this one was.

 

[barcode]

It's luck that they don't use Linux. I've tried three different distros from different people, but all of them worked awfully: don't recognize RPM's, hang every even start (not a joke!) etc. But Windows XP works stable on my machine, except rare hardware fails.

Give Ubuntu a shot. It runs flawlessly on nearly every machine I've tried it on. WinXP is a perfectly decent OS though.

 

[Jarvitä]

Give Ubuntu a shot. It runs flawlessly on nearly every machine I've tried it on. WinXP is a perfectly decent OS though.

Perhaps, but for mission-critical applications like this, any windows machines should be kept as far away from the internet as possible. Breaking into an unsecured windows machine (which appears to be the case on the ISS) is trivial, as is catching a virus/worm/trojan/any kind of malware really. It's also not nearly as stable as the alternatives.

 

[Moonwalker]

Welcome aboard I'd say

Nothing to be worried about. Also, it is a widely spread rumor that Linux is more stable and more safe as Windows (or also otherwise) on the whole. It is not a problem to hack and attack both, Linux and Windows. Windows is just the most used and most attacked OS.

I personally never had any big issues using Windows. Not bigger issues than using Linux at least. I run Ubuntu as well without less or more issues. It doesn't make a difference really. I know how to use and handle my OS.

But for NASA one advantage could be to use an individual Linux distribution as they actually do already on super computers. Anyway, they use Windows XP partly at Mission Control without any big issues.

I wonder if these Windows, Linux and Bill Gates rumors would ever stop...

 

[Kyle]

Dang Hackers!

 

[Andy44]

Virus on the laptop? That's one thing. As long as you keep the station's flight software isolated and CM'd, all should be well.

 

[Jarvitä]

Virus on the laptop? That's one thing. As long as you keep the station's flight software isolated and CM'd, all should be well.

If they connect their flight computers to the internet...well, that'd be beyond mere insanity.

 

[movieman]

It is not a problem to hack and attack both, Linux and Windows.

Hacking Linux, particularly if it's properly configured, is vastly more difficult than Windows. SELinux alone can eliminate the vast majority of routes for someone to break into your system.

The only recent successful Linux attacks I'm aware of exploit the Debian SSH flawed keys, which was nothing to do with Linux itself.

Windows is just the most used and most attacked OS.

I believe you'll find there are far more Linux machines than Windows, and many of them are performing far more critical functions than the average Windows box; the company I used to work for was aiming to sell tens of millions of Linux machines by itself.

Breaking into one Linux-based web server at an online store is vastly more profitable than breaking into Joe Sixpack's Windows PC; yet the former are rarely broken into while thousands of the latter are captured by hackers every day.

 

[tblaxland]

An update

From the daily report of 3/9/08:

The FE-1 loaded the Russian laptops RSK1, RSK2, RSE-med, RSS1 and RSE1 with new antivirus software from DVD, scanned the hard disks, taking documentary Nikon photos of the resulting message displays, and consulted with ground specialists via S-band tagup.

 

[SpaceNut]

Bear in mind, none of the critical control systems are trusted to Microsoft. Still, if I ran things at NASA, I would ban Windows for this very reason. Anymore, products purchased off the shelf can have viruses before you get them out of the package.

 

[dbeachy1]

Moderator note: new off-topic posts moved to the OS wars thread here: http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=6430&page=6