Exploits of Yesteryear Are Never Truly Gone

Attacks that once garnered so much attention years ago are rarely remembered today. Worms and viruses such as Sasser and Melissa caused pandemonium with far reaching consequences. But are these exploits dead and gone? Although mainly forgotten, malware that gained prominence more than 10 years ago still circulates in today's traffic, looking for unsuspecting victims. Owners still use outdated software, unable or unwilling to upgrade, perhaps containing unpatched vulnerabilities. At other times, a manufacturer may forget and change a setting, causing the vulnerability to reappear, even in a later version of the software. Using packet captures and open-source IDS set up to detect traffic with signatures of older attacks, this paper will explore the lingering existence of these exploits and the systems that may still be vulnerable. Then it will propose ways to protect systems and mitigate the vulnerabilities.