Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att-cb!att-ih!pacbell!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!clarinet.cis.ohio-state.edu!sarrel From: sarrel@clarinet.cis.ohio-state.edu (Marc Sarrel) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: About this virus thing... Message-ID: <9449@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: 1 Apr 88 18:36:24 GMT References: Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Organization: The Ohio State University Dept of Computer and Information Science Lines: 30 In article jv0l+@andrew.cmu.edu (Justin Chris Vallon) writes: >Maybe I'm missing something, but how does a virus killer do its thing? Are >these INITs/applications AI programs which disassemble the code in question, >figure out what it does, and eliminate it if it is "dangerous"? I'd like to >see this AI code... so would the rest of the world. :-> No, this is not at all what they do. (At least it is not the approach that the nVIR killer takes.) I would say that a virus killer like the one you describe is impossible. To write such a program would be to solve the halting problem (which we know to be impossible). > >Seriously, what could a virus-killer do? Well, the only one that I know anything about is the nVIR killer. It simply takes advantage of a feature that the nVIR author put in the virus. He/She created a way to keep his own system clean during development and the nVIR vaccine does the same thing. We may not be so lucky next time. In short, computer vaccines have to be specific to the virus against which they protect. > >Enlighten me! > >-Justin >justin.vallon@andrew.cmu.edu -=- Marc Sarrel The Ohio State University 611 Harely Dr #1 Department of Computer and Information Science Columbus, OH 43202-1835 sarrel@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Disclaimer: Hey, what do I know? I'm only a grad student.