dubya said:
Sorry for the lack of clarity. Test the network. A mix of virtual
machines and hosts with various firewalls or lack thereof. I just
want to see what it gets through and what it doesn't. Nothing will be
connected to any public networks, so no risk to public bandwidth.
True worms are generally dependent upon software vulnerabilities. The
only test worms I know about are historical in nature, and were written
for historical exploits of historical vulnerabilities. Google Fred Cohen
and read some of his papers on viruses (many of what were called viruses
then were actually worms in retrospect now that worms are better
defined). Part of the reproductive function of his test virus asked the
user for permission to infect IIRC - something any self-respecting true
worm wouldn't dream of doing.
You could concieveably install the necessary vulnerabilities (retrograde
your patches for instance) to provide an environment that supports a
particular kind of worm (like CodeRed or Sapphire) - but what would be
the point then, as you wouldn't actually be testing the network.
....as for playing with worms, that might work, but it could be
dangerous.