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A Worm, is defined by some authorities, as a self-replicating programme that does not alter files but resides in active memory and duplicates itself by means of computer networks.

Worms use the facilities of an operating system that are meant to be automatic and invisible to the user. It is common for worms to be noticed only when their uncontrolled replication consumes system resources, slowing or halting other tasks.

There is a new class of Worm, however, such as worm.explore zip, that resides in a system's memory and self-replicates, but also contains a malicious payload.