A roach motel for worms

Code Red checks in, but can’t check out. Wired News reports on LaBrea, a new Open Source “tarpit” designed to thwart worms and other attacks — by grabbing on to an attacker’s connection and not letting go. Any worms trapped in LaBrea’s tarpit are then unable to move along to infect other computers, forcing attackers to shut down their programs or computers to escape its grip. LaBrea was created by Tom Liston in response to frustrating encounters with Code Red. In implementing his own program, some offenders have been stuck in Liston’s tarpit for over a week.