Open Source helps crackers

According to McAfee's security research and communications manager Dave Marcus the growing families of 'bot' software is a direct result of the Open Sauce movement.

Bots tend to be written by a group of authors, who often collaborate by using the same tools and techniques as open-source developers, he said. Some of the bot development appear to be using open-source tools and the open-source development model.

Developers of the Agobot family of malware are using the open-source Concurrent Versions System to manage their project. At least they do not have to pay a licence fee to anyone.

McAfee has printed his comments as the headline article in its latest foray into publishing, with a magazine called Sage.

Marcus claims that he is not having a pop at the Open Source movement. It is just that there is a price for the adoption of that model, he says. He added the use of full disclosure involved in Open Sauce particularly helped the development of malware.

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