It is believed to be the first-known worm designed to aim real-world infrastructure such as power stations, H2O plants and industrial units.
It was initial rescued in June and has been deeply complicated ever since.
"The fact that you see so many more infections in Iran than wherever else in the world help us regard this hazard was targeted at Iran and that there was something in Iran that was of very, really high worth to whomever wrote it," Liam O'Murchu of safety definite Symantec, who has tracked the worm since it was initial detected, told BBC News.
Some have speculated that it could have been directed at disrupting Iran's behind Bushehr chief power plant or the uranium improvement plant at Natanz.
However, Mr O'Murchu and others, such as safety consultant Bruce Schneier , have mentioned that there was now not sufficient indication to pull conclusions about what its expected aim was or who had created it.
Initial investigate by Symantec showed that scarcely 60% of all infections were in Iran . That figure still stands, mentioned Mr O'Murchu, nonetheless India and Indonesia have moreover seen comparatively high infection rates.
Stuxnet was initial rescued in June by a safety definite formed in Belarus, but might have been present since 2009.
Unlike many viruses, the worm targets systems that are traditionally not related to the internet for safety reasons.
Instead it infects Windows machines around USB keys - ordinarily used to pierce files around - putrescent with malware.
Once it has putrescent a appurtenance on a firm's inner network, it seeks out a specific setup of industrial manage program done by Siemens.
Once hijacked, the ethics can reprogram supposed PLC (programmable proof control) program to give trustworthy industrial equipment new instructions.
"[PLCs] spin on and off motors, guard temperature, spin on coolers if a guess goes over a specific temperature," mentioned Mr O'Murchu.
"Those have never been pounded before that you have seen."
If it does not find the specific configuration, the pathogen waste comparatively benign.
However, the worm has moreover lifted eyebrows since the difficulty of the ethics used and the fact that it bundled so many not similar techniques in to one payload.
"There are a lot of new, unknown techniques being used that you have never seen before," he mentioned These add tricks to conseal itself on PLCs and USB sticks together with up to 6 not similar methods that authorised it to spread.
In addition, it exploited several formerly unknown and unpatched vulnerabilities in Windows, well known as zero-day exploits.
"It is singular to see an assault using one zero-day exploit," Mikko Hypponen, chief investigate executive at safety definite F-Secure, told BBC News. "Stuxnet used not one, not two, but four."
He mentioned cybercriminals and "everyday hackers" valued zero-day exploits and would not "waste" them by bundling so many together.
Microsoft has so far patched two of the flaws.
Mr O'Murchu concluded and mentioned that his review referred to that whoever had created the worm had put a "huge effort" in to it.
"It is a really large project, it is really well planned, it is really well funded," he said. "It has an astounding amount of ethics just to taint the machines."
His review is corroborated up by other investigate done by safety firms and P.C. experts.
"With the forensics you now have it is clear and provable that Stuxnet is a directed harm assault involving heavy insider knowledge," mentioned Ralph Langner, an industrial P.C. consultant in an review he published on the web .
"This is not a few hacker sitting in the groundwork of his parents' house. To me, it seems that the resources indispensable to theatre this assault indicate to a republic state," he wrote.
Mr Langner, who declined to be interviewed by the BBC, has drawn a lot of concern for suggesting that Stuxnet could have been targeting the Bushehr chief plant.
In particular, he has highlighted a sketch reportedly taken inside the plant that suggests it used the targeted manage systems, nonetheless they were "not accurately protected and configured".
Mr O'Murchu mentioned no definite conclusions could be drawn.
However, he hopes that will change when he releases his review at a discussion in Vancouver next week .
"We are not aware with what configurations are used in not similar industries," he said.
Instead, he hopes that other experts will be able to pore over their investigate and pinpoint the expect setup indispensable and where that is used.
A orator for Siemens, the creator of the targeted systems, mentioned it would not criticism on "speculations about the aim of the virus".
He mentioned that Iran's chief power plant had been built with help from a Russian contractor and that Siemens was not involved.
"Siemens was conjunction entangled in the reformation of Bushehr or any chief plant building in Iran, nor delivered any program or manage system," he said. "Siemens left the country scarcely 30 years ago."
Siemens mentioned that it was usually aware of 15 infections that had done their way on to manage systems in factories, often in Germany. Symantec's geographical review of the worm's expansion moreover looked at putrescent PCs.
"There have been no instances where prolongation operations have been shabby or where a plant has failed," the Siemens orator said. "The pathogen has been private in all the cases well known to us."
He moreover mentioned that according to universal safety standards, Microsoft program "may not be used to run vicious processes in plants".
It is not the initial time that malware has been found that affects vicious infrastructure, nonetheless many incidents happen accidentally, mentioned Mr O'Murchu, when a pathogen expected to taint other network accidently wreaked devastation with real-world systems.
In 2009 the US supervision certified that program had been found that could close down the nation's power grid.
And Mr Hypponen mentioned that he was aware of an assault - launched by putrescent USB sticks - against the army systems of a Nato country.
"Whether the assailant was successful, you do not know," he said.
Mr O'Murchu will present his paper on Stuxnet at Virus Bulletin 2010 in Vancouver on 29 September. Researchers from Kaspersky Labs will moreover betray new commentary at the same eventuality .
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