RESEARCHERS have uncovered a malware framework dubbed fast16 that predates Stuxnet by five years, with components dating back to 2005. According to SentinelOne researchers, fast16 quietly corrupts the outputs of high-precision engineering and scientific software by introducing tiny systematic errors to undermined calculations.
The authors discovered fast16 while tracing the earliest embedded Lua VM in Windows malware, and SentinelOne notes it appears to be the first Lua-based network worm targeting high-precision calculation software. The three software suites likely targeted are LS-DYNA 970, PKPM, and the MOHID hydrodynamic modelling platform, used for crash testing, structural analysis, and environmental modelling.
While it remains unclear whether the authors deployed the weapon in an actual attack, Kamluk says the malware is likely the work of a nation-state actor, and the virus was uploaded to VirusTotal more than a decade ago where it ran on legacy systems such as Windows XP.