NetworkWorld: Stuxnet and Flame share code, development teams

Kaspersky Lab says early version of Stuxnet has a Flame module

By Ellen Messmer
June 11, 2012

The recently discovered Flame cyber-espionage malware has a direct connection to the Stuxnet malware used to attack programmable logic controllers at Iranian nuclear facilities two years ago, according to Kaspersky Lab, which says Flame and Stuxnet share some technical code that reveals a common development effort of some sort.

The early version of Stuxnet has a Flame module, said Roel Schouwenberg, senior researcher at Kaspersky Lab, who joined with colleague Vitaly Kamluk to share Kaspersky's latest findings today about what the security firm says reveals a direct relationship between those who developed the cyber-weapon Stuxnet and those who developed the Windows-based cyber-espionage tool Flame. He called them "two parallel operations" that were coordinated in some form.

In recent revelations now rocking the political world, The New York Times reported that President Barack Obama ordered use of the Stuxnet cyber-weapon to attack Iran, charges the White House hasn't refuted. This has triggered a special investigation to find out where in the administration a leak about Stuxnet occurred.

Now, Kaspersky's assertions that Stuxnet and the more-recently discovered Flame -- which Iran's computer-response team in May claimed was found on computers infecting its oil-ministry computers -- are connected, the stakes may be raised even further in the political world.

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