A computer worm is a standalone malware computer program that replicates itself in order to spread to other computers. Often, it uses a computer network to spread itself, relying on security failures on the target computer to access it. Unlike a computer virus, it does not need to attach itself to an existing program. Worms almost always cause at least some harm to the network, even if only by consuming bandwidth, whereas viruses almost always corrupt or modify files on a targeted computer.
Many worms that have been created are designed only to spread, and do not attempt to change the systems they pass through. However, as the Morris worm and Mydoom showed, even these "payload free" worms can cause major disruption by increasing network traffic and other unintended effects. A "payload" is code in the worm designed to do more than spread the worm—it might delete files on a host system (e.g., the ExploreZip worm), encrypt files in a ransomware attack, or send documents via e-mail. A very common payload for worms is to install a backdoor in the infected computer to allow the creation of a "zombie" computer under control of the worm author. Networks of such machines are often referred to as botnets and are very commonly used by spam senders for sending junk email or to cloak their website's address. Spammers are therefore thought to be a source of funding for the creation of such worms, and the worm writers have been caught selling lists of IP addresses of infected machines. Others try to blackmail companies with threatened DoS attacks.
The term worm /ˈwɜːrm/ is used in everyday language to describe many different distantly related animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body and no limbs. Worms vary in size from microscopic to over 1 metre (3.3 ft) in length for marine polychaete worms (bristle worms),6.7 metres (22 ft) for the African giant earthworm, Microchaetus, and 58 metres (190 ft) for the marine nemertean worm (bootlace worm), Lineus longissimus. Various types of worm occupy a small variety of parasitic niches, living inside the bodies of other animals. Free-living worm species do not live on land, but instead live in marine or freshwater environments, or underground by burrowing.
In biology, "worm" refers to an obsolete taxon (vermes) used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, and stems from the Old English word wyrm. Most animals called "worms" are invertebrates, but the term is also used for the amphibian caecilians and the slow worm Anguis, a legless burrowing lizard. Invertebrate animals commonly called "worms" include annelids (earthworms), nematodes (roundworms), platyhelminthes (flatworms), marine polychaete worms (bristle worms), marine nemertean worms ("bootlace worms"), marine Chaetognatha (arrow worms), priapulid worms, and insect larvae such as grubs and maggots.
Worms (ワーム, Wāmu) are the villains in the Japanese tokusatsu series Kamen Rider Kabuto. They are an alien life form that came from a meteor destroying the city district of Shibuya seven years prior to the series' timeline. However, the Worms known as Natives existed prior to the coming of the Shibuya Meteorite, through another meteorite that came 35 years ago. In the movie, a third meteor nearly hit the Earth, though thanks to Kabuto it was adverted and history was altered. This implies that meteors containing Worms are insolated and there are others.
The Worms were designed by Yasushi Nirasawa (韮沢 靖, Nirasawa Yasushi), who also designed the Undead for Kamen Rider Blade, the Horrors in GARO and later created the Imagin for Kamen Rider Den-O. These designs were later detailed in Worm Works: GITAI (ワームワークスGITAI, Wāmu Wākusu GITAI).
A mysterious meteorite that crashed into Shibuya seven years ago. This meteorite brought along the extraterrestrial creatures known as Worms. During episode 41, Riku Kagami explains that another meteorite carrying the Natives had arrived on Earth thirty-five years before this, explaining why fragments of the meteorite similar to those of the Shibuya Meteorite existed so long ago. The Natives that arrived on Earth worked with humans to create the Masked Rider System in order to fend off the threat of other Worms that would arrive later. In the movie, which acts as a prequel to the series, it is revealed this meteor was actually far larger and would've vaporized Earth's oceans and released many more Worms until Hyper Kabuto went back in time with the meteor and caused it to slam into the Shibuya meteor, resulting in only a small fragment of it landing in Shibuya.
This is the Index of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition monsters, an important element of that role-playing game. This list only includes monsters from official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition supplements published by TSR, Inc. or Wizards of the Coast, not licensed or unlicensed third party products such as video games or unlicensed Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition manuals.
This was the initial monster book for the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, published in 1977. Gary Gygax wrote much of the work himself, having included and expanded most of the monsters from the previous D&D supplements. Also included are monsters originally printed in The Strategic Review, as well as some originally found in early issues of The Dragon (such as the anhkheg and remorhaz), and other early game materials. This book also expanded on the original monster format, such as including the stat lines on the same page as the monsters' descriptions and introducing more stats, expanding the length of most monster descriptions, and featuring illustrations for most of the monsters. The book features an alphabetical table of contents of all the monsters on pages 3–4, explanatory notes for the statistics lines on pages 5–6, descriptions of the monsters on pages 6–103, a treasure chart on page 105, and an index of major listings on pages 106-109.