Security conscious software developers, certainly including
.NET developers, should take particular note of the
Metasploit Framework
released into the wild by
Metasploit. I have to stretch a bit to have faith that this
information and toolkit will be used more for good than harm.
Still, with all sorts of very nasty new viruses appearing,
ones that can even hop from Bluetooth to your Symbian-enabled
cellphone (see
SymbOS.Cabir), all of us serious software professionals had better
educate ourselves on the tools and techniques being used
against us by the denizens of the Dark Side. Frankly, I think
the virus wars have escalated beyond the coping ability of the
normal anti-virus vendors and their products. From what I
see, most organizations are absolutely clueless as to the new
hazards we face today! If you care about your users, you will
need to work very hard to protect them and your applications
from the kinds of tactics demonstrated publicly by
Metasploit
and similar exploit information sources. May the Force be
with you!