Found on the internet : Improving antivirus scanners

W

WimHamhuis

Found @ website : http://z0mbie.host.sk/pww.txt

PERVERT WORLD WIDE
------------------

Almost all trojans and viruses are detected using simple signatures.
Which means that simple crc is calculated on the entire file, or on
some parts of the code being checked.

There are thousands of simple signatures already stored in the antiviral
databases. Each signature is equivalent to hours of an aver's work.

Using simple length disassembler and some simple rules, it is possible
to analyze an arbitrary executable file and change some instructions
in it, so that it will run the same as before, but file's checksum will
be changed.

This means that antivirus will no longer be able to identify these files
by using the previous checksums.

A tool called "Code Pervertor" was written some years ago. It can
analyze a PE file and swap a few equivalent instructions, such as "test
eax, eax" with "or eax, eax" and vice versa.

Another similar process is "diversification", which means the random
changing of some data offsets within all system DLLs and services.
Diversification complicates exploitation based on fixed address usage and
will probably soon be implemented as a security measure.

Now imagine that some worm "perverted" and "diversified" all executable
files it found on a machines over the net. It is likely that the same
vulnerable machines will also contain trojans. So when all these trojans
become unique, what avers will do?

There are two methods of detecting such a modified files.

First method is to modify files before analyzing, the same as "code
pervertors" do, but without the randomization. For example, if some
instructions can be interchanged with each other, perform one-way changes
only, for example replace all "or eax, eax" with "test eax, eax", but not
vice versa.

This method has tons of negative aspects: there can be many different
methods of file modification, but some of them can be
irreversible.

The second method consists of re-writing all checksum algorithms
and recalculating all the signatures. The new checksum algorithm should
become invariant to simple modifications such as swapping equal
or interchangable instructions with each other.

This method is something like image recognition, where the new algorithm can
return an equal result for many different data inputs.

This method also has a serious disadvantage. If someone introduced a new
file modification method, the checksum algorithm will have to be once again
changed and all the antiviral signatures recalculated.

A few hundred infected machines with automatic "pervertors" will catch all
the new just-released worms and viruses and modify 'em "on the fly",
automatically spawning new variants.


2004.03.01

But as all good antivirus programmers know, the checksum of the virusdefinition
file in whole would be changed, and the antivirus program could then be auto-
matically be instructed to download the virusdefinition file in whole, undo-ing
the damage, or checking the individual entrys in the database for correctness.

Wim Hamhuis
 
W

Wim Hamhuis

kurt wismer said:
consider the source... and try not to believe everything you read on
the web...

--
"we're the first ones to starve, we're the first ones to die
the first ones in line for that pie in the sky
and we're always the last when the cream is shared out
for the worker is working when the fat cat's about"

Well, as people write computervirusses, you can use your wildest imagination
to even beter protect your virusscanner, right ?

w.f.g.
Wim Hamhuis
 
K

kurt wismer

Wim said:
Well, as people write computervirusses, you can use your wildest imagination
to even beter protect your virusscanner, right ?

i'm not quite sure how to interpret that...
 
W

Wim Hamhuis

kurt wismer said:
i'm not quite sure how to interpret that...

How about moving the signatures into a encrypted file that contains them,
making it impossible for virusses to alter it. When it becomes altered, but
doesn't match the read only one on the server, it simply downloads again
with a lasting CRC check each byte.

Then the example i mentioned would be impossible for a virus to alter.

w.f.g.
Wim Hamhuis
 
K

kurt wismer

Wim said:
kurt wismer said:
Wim Hamhuis wrote: [snip]
Well, as people write computervirusses, you can use your wildest
imagination
to even beter protect your virusscanner, right ?

i'm not quite sure how to interpret that...

How about moving the signatures into a encrypted file that contains them,

generally signatures are already encrypted...
making it impossible for virusses to alter it.

encryption does not prevent alteration... you can't prevent alteration,
but you can detect it and i suspect anti-virus products do perform
checks to detect possible corruption of their signature files...
 
F

FromTheRafters

kurt wismer said:
consider the source... and try not to believe everything you read on
the web...

I get something very strange from that link - not a normal text file.
Is my computer broken again?
 
M

me

I get something very strange from that link - not a normal
text file. Is my computer broken again?

FWIW: plain text file as of the time of the OP, plain text files
as of the time of this reply (less a few sec's).

J
 
F

FromTheRafters

FWIW: plain text file as of the time of the OP, plain text files
as of the time of this reply (less a few sec's).

I get a warning about the downloading of "VRML BrowserCtl object".

The resulting "pww.txt" file is not human language readable and is the
same when I "save", "save target as", or "view-source:http..."

Must be something about my system (probably something I did to it).

Thanks for the feedback.
 
N

null

I get a warning about the downloading of "VRML BrowserCtl object".

The resulting "pww.txt" file is not human language readable and is the
same when I "save", "save target as", or "view-source:http..."

Must be something about my system (probably something I did to it).

Must be. Plain text readable in both Moz and IE6


Art
http://www.epix.net/~artnpeg
 

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