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The official news agency of Iran said today that the Stuxnet worm had infected computers at the Bushehr nuclear power plant, but had not caused any serious damage.

With millions of lines of code, how long does it take to know for sure?

I first wrote about the Stuxnet worm on August 13 and again on September 21. The worm exploits THREE holes in all versions of Windows, only ONE of which has been patched. (“Gee Doc, it HURTS when I use Windows….” )

The residual back door left behind by the infection can be used to take over processes, close output pipelines, and generally cause mayhem with physical systems. The back door has been reported to force a line-by-line examination of code to ensure that plants and processes are functioning as designed.

The sophistication of Stuxnet, including the exploitation of three zero-day holes in Windows, an insider knowledge of the Siemens control software, the use of two digital signatures apparently stolen from manufacturers in Taiwan, and programming skills has caused at least one security expert to suspect a nation state in its creation.

The project manager at the Bushehr plant, Mahmoud Jafari, said the worm “has not caused any damage to major systems of the plant” and that a team was working to remove it from several computers, according to Iran’s IRNA news agency as reported by the Associated Press.

Jafari said that the infection involved the PCs of several staff members and would not affect the plans to open the Bushehr facility in October, according to the Associated Press.

We shall see.

(Note added October 17, 2010: Sorry about the delayed reporting on this, but it looks like we had to wait ONLY THREE DAYS from when I wrote this blog entry for an official announcement by Iran, on September 29, that the Bushehr nuclear power plant will not go online for at least another three months from that date! Iran denied that the delay was related to the Stuxnet worm. [A friend of mine says that you should always WAIT for the official DENIAL before you believe ANYTHING! ] The Christian Science Monitor article also cites speculation about possible efforts to sell Iran flawed centrifuges and other equipment to slow progress on the plant.)

-Bill at

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