Sounded like another "buffer overflow" error attack* but then.....
The program processes DNA sequences so the notion is to craft a DNA sequence (presumably in some bacteria or virus) that when detected, analyzed and fed through the software triggers a BO fail.
DNA synthesis machines (and DNAaaS companies exist) have been around for decades, although reinserting the product into an organism is tricky.
You'd probably want it to have it marked "do not read" by the host organism as what that sequence coded for inside an organism could be anything. Also genes are not read quit the way most people think they are. They are usually in multiple segments and often sub sets of the full set can generate specific proteins as well
So the attack vector is DNA --> Analyser--> V. big file --> file compressor -->Pwd PC running file compressor.
Worst case scenario. The malware writer inadvertently creates something that is a viable structure in the host organism and it's highly dangerous.
I guess it's what you'd do if you were the NSA and you suspected a nation state was running a covert BW programme you wanted to get a window into.
This is real Greg Bear territory ("Vitals" comes to mind), although I think William Gibson did a short story ("New Rose Hotel"? ) that loosely hinges around this idea.
Beer as it's Friday and y'know, yeast.
*My second thought was someone had used genetic algorithm techniques to "breed" more efficient BO code, which would be clever but not be that interesting (I'm not familiar with the subject but I'd be astonished if that hadn't been done several times by now).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
