20-03-2012, 01:16 PM
Study of Viruses and Worms
Seminar Report on Study of Viruses and Worms.docx (Size: 177.36 KB / Downloads: 70)
I. INTRODUCTION
The internet consists of hundreds of millions
of computers distributed around the world. Millions of people
use the internet daily, taking full advantage of the available
services at both personal and professional levels. The internet
connectivity among computers on which the World Wide Web
relies, however renders its nodes on easy target for malicious
users who attempt to exhaust their resources or damage the
data or create a havoc in the network.
Computer Viruses, especially in recent years,
have increased dramatically in number. One of the most highprofile
threats to information integrity is the Computer Virus.
Surprisingly, PC viruses have been around for two-thirds of the
IBM PC’s lifetime, appearing in 1986. With global computing
on the rise, computer viruses have had more visibility in
the past few years. In fact, the entertainment industry has
helped by illustrating the effects of viruses in movies such as
”Independence Day”, ”The Net”, and ”Sneakers”. Along with
computer viruses, computer worms are also increasing day by
day. So, there is a need to immunise the internet by creating
awareness in the people about these in detail. In this paper I
have explained the basic concepts of viruses and worms and
how they spread.
PRELIMINARIES
A. Virus:
A self-replicating program. Some definitions
also add the constraint saying that it has to attach itself to a
host program to be able to replicate. Often Viruses require a
host, and their goal is to infect other files so that the virus can
live longer. Some viruses perform destructive actions although
this is not necessarily the case.Many viruses attempt to hide
from being discovered.
The following are some of the characteristics
of Viruses:
1) Size - The sizes of the program code required for
computer viruses are very small.
2) Versatility - Computer viruses have appeared with the
ability to generically attack a wide variety of applications.
3) Propagation - Once a computer virus has infected a
program, while this program is running, the virus is able
to spread to other programs and files accessible to the
computer system.
4) Effectiveness - Many of the computer viruses have
far-reaching and catastrophic effects on their victims,
including total loss of data, programs, and even the
operating systems.
5) Functionality - A wide variety of functions has been
demonstrated in virus programs. Some virus programs
merely spread themselves to applications without attacking
data files, program functions, or operating system
activities. Other viruses are programmed to damage or
delete files, and even to destroy systems.
6) Persistence - In many cases, especially networked operations,
eradication of viruses has been complicated by the
ability of virus program to repeatedly spread and reoccur
through the networked system from a single copy.
III. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
A. Malicious Code Environments
It is important to know about the particular
execution environments to understand about Computer
Viruses. A successful penetration of the system by a viral
code occurs only if the various dependencies of malicious code
match a potential environment. The following are some of the
various malicious code environments
1) Computer Architecture Dependency
2) CPU Dependency
3) Operating System Dependency and Operating System
version Dependency
4) File System Dependency
5) File Form Dependency
6) Interpreted Environment Dependency
7) Vulnerability Dependency
8) Date and Time Dependency
9) Just-In-Time Dependency
10) Achieve Format Dependency
Seminar Report on Study of Viruses and Worms.docx (Size: 177.36 KB / Downloads: 70)
I. INTRODUCTION
The internet consists of hundreds of millions
of computers distributed around the world. Millions of people
use the internet daily, taking full advantage of the available
services at both personal and professional levels. The internet
connectivity among computers on which the World Wide Web
relies, however renders its nodes on easy target for malicious
users who attempt to exhaust their resources or damage the
data or create a havoc in the network.
Computer Viruses, especially in recent years,
have increased dramatically in number. One of the most highprofile
threats to information integrity is the Computer Virus.
Surprisingly, PC viruses have been around for two-thirds of the
IBM PC’s lifetime, appearing in 1986. With global computing
on the rise, computer viruses have had more visibility in
the past few years. In fact, the entertainment industry has
helped by illustrating the effects of viruses in movies such as
”Independence Day”, ”The Net”, and ”Sneakers”. Along with
computer viruses, computer worms are also increasing day by
day. So, there is a need to immunise the internet by creating
awareness in the people about these in detail. In this paper I
have explained the basic concepts of viruses and worms and
how they spread.
PRELIMINARIES
A. Virus:
A self-replicating program. Some definitions
also add the constraint saying that it has to attach itself to a
host program to be able to replicate. Often Viruses require a
host, and their goal is to infect other files so that the virus can
live longer. Some viruses perform destructive actions although
this is not necessarily the case.Many viruses attempt to hide
from being discovered.
The following are some of the characteristics
of Viruses:
1) Size - The sizes of the program code required for
computer viruses are very small.
2) Versatility - Computer viruses have appeared with the
ability to generically attack a wide variety of applications.
3) Propagation - Once a computer virus has infected a
program, while this program is running, the virus is able
to spread to other programs and files accessible to the
computer system.
4) Effectiveness - Many of the computer viruses have
far-reaching and catastrophic effects on their victims,
including total loss of data, programs, and even the
operating systems.
5) Functionality - A wide variety of functions has been
demonstrated in virus programs. Some virus programs
merely spread themselves to applications without attacking
data files, program functions, or operating system
activities. Other viruses are programmed to damage or
delete files, and even to destroy systems.
6) Persistence - In many cases, especially networked operations,
eradication of viruses has been complicated by the
ability of virus program to repeatedly spread and reoccur
through the networked system from a single copy.
III. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
A. Malicious Code Environments
It is important to know about the particular
execution environments to understand about Computer
Viruses. A successful penetration of the system by a viral
code occurs only if the various dependencies of malicious code
match a potential environment. The following are some of the
various malicious code environments
1) Computer Architecture Dependency
2) CPU Dependency
3) Operating System Dependency and Operating System
version Dependency
4) File System Dependency
5) File Form Dependency
6) Interpreted Environment Dependency
7) Vulnerability Dependency
8) Date and Time Dependency
9) Just-In-Time Dependency
10) Achieve Format Dependency