Magical Malware
Advanced computer and magic users share many traits, their eccentric natures, their propensity to recluse themselves, and their shared taste for comfortable clothing. It stands to reason then, that if the respective users of these arcane skills share personality traits, that they might use their abilities in similar ways as well. One phenomenon that makes for a fascinating study, but lacks a magical counterpart, is computer malware. This article will explore the various types of malware and, with a little creativity, attempt to describe what the magical variety might look like.
Hoax
Computer hoaxes of the mundane world are ninety-nine percent social engineering, one percent computer knowledge, and completely harmless if identified for what they are. Typically hoaxes are spread through chain emails, but it is not uncommon for them to appear as pop ups on less reputable websites. The goal of a hoax varies with its creator and can be as simple as its continued propagation or it may be to convince the victim to perform some potentially harmful action on their computer themselves -- such as deleting important system files. Regardless of its intent, however, the best way to avoid the consequences of a hoax is to ignore it and typically only those that do not know any better are taken in.
Hoaxes appear first in this article because they do not require much actual computer use to create, and so finding a magical parallel should be very easy. Delivering a magical hoax could be done with a letter -- the same way computer hoaxes are delivered by email -- or it could be done with an illusion spell and deliver its message through sound and sight. The illusion could take the form of a member of a council of mages or some other trusted individual in the magic community, and suggest that a rampant magical virus requires the recipient to excise all copies of the magic missile spell from their spell books. Magical hoaxes will probably only affect the most gullible or low level of spellcasters, and would be created by both pranksters and malicious mages alike.
Trojan
Anyone familiar with the story of the Trojan Horse is familiar with the origin of the Trojan Virus’ name -- often just Trojan for short. Like their wooden predecessor Trojans attempt to disguise themselves as something benign or even beneficial in order to be brought into a user’s protected environment and deliver their payload. Common delivery techniques include “lost” thumbdrives that have been left in public spaces, email attachments or, as in the case of the famous “Koobface” Trojan, social networking sites like Facebook. Trojan payloads are as varied as they are malicious and can contain backdoors (that allow an attacker remote access to a computer or make it part of a botnet), keyloggers (that allow an attacker to steal personal information), or targeted programs that are just written to cause damage on the targeted machine.
The most obvious magical Trojans are cursed items, but with a little creativity other delivery methods can be found. Magic scrolls and potions might contain trojan spells, and may be left by a cunning, evil wizard for an adventuring party to find. The spell contained within a Trojan potion of cure light wounds might be a charm person or a divination spell that allows a wizard to spy on the imbiber. A magical Trojan should not be obvious under standard or even rudimentary magical observation and would take a relatively advanced magic user to create.
Virus
Computer viruses are defined by their ability to insert themselves into other programs and self-replicate. Viruses find their way onto a target computer forcibly, and often do so by taking advantage of security holes in a computer’s existing software. Adobe Flash, for example, has been used by many viruses as a tool for infecting a target computer -- a machine with an unpatched copy of Flash need only visit a malicious site in order for the virus to use the exploit and execute code on the target computer. Viruses are not defined by their payload, and can accomplish the same ill effects as a Trojan, but their method of self replication is what makes them unique.
Some viruses insert themselves into a computer’s startup sequence, while others infect a computer’s runtime processes, and even more still might use a combination of the two. When a virus inserts itself into a computer’s startup sequence it is executed at boot time so, even if the damage is fixed while the computer is running, the virus will reinfect the computer the next time it starts up. A virus that has infected a computer runtime process will be executed every time the operating system uses the infected file, this behaves similarly to the previous variety of virus, except the computer can reinfect itself even while running. Both methods of self-replication are very clever, and make for some interesting magical analogues.
A viral spell following the model of a computer virus would reinfect its target even after the original effects had been dispelled. A viral spell that takes effect on “startup” might reinfect the target whenever they wake up from sleep, or it might reinfect them when they are preparing their spells for the day. ‘Runtime’ viral spells would target a specific spell, and so whenever the victim casts that spell, the virus would be triggered. Viral spells would be fairly easy to detect, but difficult to remove, most viral spells would attempt to protect themselves from being dispelled by the target, and might need the assistance of a powerful third party wizard to remove. Effective viral spells, like their computer counterparts, would be complicated to cast, and so only spellcasters of substantial power would be able to manage them.
Worm
Computer worms deserve a special mention because of their method of propagation. Unlike viruses, which require some kind of continued action from the creator to spread, worms have the ability to propagate built into them. A worm will typically use the infected computer’s local network to distribute itself to other vulnerable machines (that will then attempt to infect the computers that they can access and so on, ad infinitum). A worm does not need to be inserted into system files on the infected machine either, their replication is taken care of by other infected machines on the network and they will attempt to replicate themselves as fast they can -- the reason why worms are known to hurt network bandwidth. In order for a magical worm to work, there needs to be a medium for transmission.
A worm spell transfers itself from one infected target to the next whenever an infected wizard casts a spell on another spellcaster. This means that an infected wizard attempting to dispel the worm spell on another wizard would reinfect the wizard at the same time as removing the infection, or reinfect himself at the same time he attempts to dispel the worm on himself. For this reason an infected community of wizards might need to bring in outside -- uninfected -- help to remove the worm.
Adware
The most annoying of malware, adware causes advertisements to pup up unbidden and unwelcome on an infected computer. Adware usually does not intentionally cause any harm to the infected machine, but they are not designed to be overly efficient with computer resources either. Most adware is introduced to a computer when the user willingly installs software that they did not inspect very closely and has the adware embedded within it. Many times the adware will persist on the computer after the original software is removed and some possess a very virus-like ability to avoid direct removal.
Magical adware hitches along in the syllables of the spell itself, and is introduced to a wizard’s spellbook when they transcribe scrolls they received for “free” or that were “found”. The advertisement may appear as an illusory image that appears before the spellcaster, or as a disembodied voice, that advertises something whenever the compromised spell is cast. Alternatively, a more malicious magical adware might take the form of a curse that causes advertisements to appear whenever the wizard casts any spell at all. In either case, the spell cast will likely suffer in performance, since some of the mage’s energy is being wasted on generating the advertisement. A wizard might transfer his magical adware to another spellcaster if they share their spellbook and allow spells to be copied from it.
Each type of magical malware warrants its own in-depth exploration and deserves some example game mechanics to further explain how they might function. Until those articles are written, however, check Wikipedia for specific examples of famous malware and model spells after the way that they function. Spellcasters, like computer hackers, are very cunning, and with a bit of creativity the brutish straightforwardness of a fireball will begin to look quaint and amateurish.
Brendan Cass is an IT professional, web scientist, and game developer. He built and maintains the Skirmisher Publishing LLC and d-Infinity websites and is currently in development with Bookforge -- a platform for discovering and interacting with gaming materials in a new way.
