Editing Morris worm (section)

==Replication rate==
By instructing the worm to replicate itself regardless of a computer's reported infection status, Morris transformed the worm from a potentially harmless intellectual and computing exercise into a viral [[denial-of-service attack]]. Morris's inclusion of the rate of copy within the worm was inspired by [[Michael O. Rabin|Michael Rabin]]'s mantra of [[Randomized algorithm|''randomization'']].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://morrisworm.larrymcelhiney.com/morris_appeal.txt |title=Court Appeal of Morris |access-date=February 5, 2014 |archive-date=May 13, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100513050921/http://morrisworm.larrymcelhiney.com/morris_appeal.txt |url-status=live }}</ref> 

The resulting level of replication proved excessive, with the worm spreading rapidly, infecting some computers several times. Rabin would eventually comment that Morris "should have tried it on a simulator first".<ref>{{cite book|last=Maynor|first=David|title=Metasploit Toolkit for Penetration Testing, Exploit Development, and Vulnerability Research|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JWgNVFtbWJ4C&pg=PA218|year=2011|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=978-0-08-054925-5|page=218}}</ref>