Saint Morris, Church Father and First of the Worms

Patron of those who forget a stopping condition, the fingerd and sendmail daemons, and all the worms yet to come.

Life

On the night of 2 November 1988 a program written by Robert Tappan Morris, a student at Cornell, spread by itself across the machines of the Internet: it got in through an overflow in the fingerd daemon, the debug command left enabled in sendmail (CVE-1999-0095) and weak passwords. A propagation mistake made it replicate without end, paralysing thousands of computers. It was the first Internet worm, the case that gave birth to the CERTs; today we honour it as a Church Father, on All Souls' Day.

Prayer

O Saint Morris, first worm that could not stop, teach our programs when it is time to quit. On the day of the dead, deliver us from endless replication. Amen.

How to celebrate

Celebrated by disabling the sendmail debug command, checking buffer bounds and, in memoriam, writing at least one termination condition.

A worm with no brake devours the whole field.