Duqu not created by authors of Stuxnet worm

The design similarities between the recently-publicised Duqu malware and the infamous Stuxnet worm that caused widespread alarm more than a year ago have been hugely exaggerated, an analysis by Dell SecureWorks has concluded.

The essence of the company’s strip-down analysis is that despite some common features, Duqu and Stuxnet have been designed to do different jobs, one very targeted, the other more general.

The two pieces of malware do share rootkit-like design elements, including the way the kernel level driver has been implemented and its loading of encrypted DLL files. Strikingly, both also use a driver-signing certificate from the same Taiwanese company, JMicron, for one of their kernel files. “The commonality of a software signing certificate is insufficient evidence to conclude the samples are related because compromised signing certificates can be obtained from a number of sources,” said the unconvinced researchers. “One would have to prove the sources are common to draw a definitive conclusion.”