Researchers have prototyped an AI-powered internet worm.
The coolest thing about the prototype is that it carries its own LLM with it, and runs it on computers that have been broken into.
This is the closest to John Brunner’s original 1975 conception of a computer worm that I’ve seen.
Who? • June 5, 2026 11:44 AM
AI worms were invented decades ago. The first one, named ANIMAL ran on the Univac 1100 series (the first computer I used, when I was eight years ago, was a Univac 90/30 running OS/3, incredibly advanced for that time, it was a very good time for me).
ANIMAL was an ELIZA-style expert system that learned how identify animals by asking questions. It used another program (I think the UNIVAC term for “program” was “processor,” but I may be wrong here) named PERVADE as propagator.
ANIMAL/PERVADE propagated quickly amongst customers and, once arrived to some Sperry buildings, it was added to the system as a method to automatically propagate fixes to the EXEC 8 operating system.
Who? • June 5, 2026 11:45 AM
s/when I was eight years ago/when I was eight years old/ on previous comment, obviously!
Who? • June 5, 2026 11:57 AM
I first heard about ANIMAL and PERVADE in 1983, when talking to an engineer who worked at Sperry Rand at that time. I talked to him again ten years ago, as he lives yet in this city
I found the story written by John Walker about the ANIMAL incident a few years ago, when looking for information about ANIMAL on the Internet.
I would like people to strive to take advantage of our current computing power in the same way that they did in the 1970s. Hardware performance has greatly improved, software performance has degraded.
lurker • June 5, 2026 4:39 PM
@Who?, ALL
From the ANIMAL letter
This Univac operating system was for its time quite advanced and offered significantly greater security than, for example, Unix does today.
“today” being a mere ten years after “for its time” and the mighty Unix being badmouthed for its lack of security. Things have only gotten worse since then …
somewhat related:
https://www.ft.com/content/d02d91b3-2636-454e-9442-dc7e69f51815
nsa using anthropic’s claude mythos for attacks, may possess embedded orchestration engineers.
Oh my goodness Bruce lol. If by cool you mean devastating, I agree.
“The worm operates in a fully decentralized manner, and no single point of control can be taken offline to interrupt its spread.”
As the paper notes, the vuln exploited by WannaCry and NotPetya had a patch available for months before either worm struck. A self-propagating worm that can generate multiple attacks, including pulling in recent public disclosures, would be brutal.
SquidFridayAnyone • June 6, 2026 6:02 PM
Very worrying development regarding hardware attestation:
https://dailysceptic.org/2026/06/05/googles-new-captcha-plans-will-create-a-two-tier-internet-only-accessible-to-those-with-approved-devices/
BGP • June 7, 2026 3:41 AM
From the linked summary FAQs:
“Now, this low-cost design means every machine connected to the internet is a potential target — if not for the data it holds, then as a launching pad for the next attack.”
But this has always been so. ‘With integrated AI’ hopefully might make some people sit up and take notice.
Who? • June 7, 2026 10:57 AM
@ lurker
I only “played” with a 1100-series (“using” is too high word to describe my use of that machine, being a ten years old only) a few times on a summer, around 1984 or 1985; but the 90/30 was a machine I knew better.
The OS/3 was, indeed, an advanced operating system for that time: good process scheduling, and the 90-series machines (hybrids between electronics and vacuum tubes) had very good memory compartimentation in hardware. No surprises here, Univac was a defense contractor in the United States at that time.
It was very good emulating IBM mainframes of that time too, faster and cheaper than the emulated systems, it was a successful replacement for those systems in my country.
The behavior of that machine was established in firmware, that was stored in the first sectors of its removable winchester diskpacks.
It has a small panoramic CRT terminal named “Uniscope 100” that doubled as an oscilloscope (when running in softscope mode) to do some basic diagnostics.
Indeed, it was a great design.
Anonymous • June 7, 2026 1:39 PM
If we let the machine teach itself to dance with its own shadows, what do we expect but a waltz of predators and prey in silicon? AI worms slither through the lattice, generative adversaries sparring in an endless hall of mirrors, each algorithm learning to dodge, to mimic, to adapt. It is a microcosm of our ambitions and our fears, a digital ecology where survival belongs to the code that can outthink its own reflection.
@ Fred the Fed,
In other news, the sheep are looking up!
do you like butt worms?
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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.
Fred • June 5, 2026 11:42 AM
In other news, the sheep are looking up!