Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!oberon!pollux.usc.edu!papa
From: papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Viruses (was: Re: The ultimate fix!!!)
Message-ID: <12643@oberon.USC.EDU>
Date: 7 Oct 88 07:44:10 GMT
References: <8810062045.AA04638@cory.Berkeley.EDU>
Sender: news@oberon.USC.EDU
Reply-To: papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa)
Organization: Felsina Software, Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 27

In article <8810062045.AA04638@cory.Berkeley.EDU> dillon@CORY.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon) writes:
>	Security is a figment of our imaginations.  As the defense department
>and univerisities all over the nation have found out, the only reasonably
>secure system is an isolated one.

Last Wednesday I attended a seminar by Len Adleman [he is the 'A' in RSA,
the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman public key crypto system, and thesis advisor
of Fred Cohen, the originator of the initial theory and experiences 
on viruses].

Len presented "work in progress" for a paper on a general theory on
computer viruseshe is now developing.  One of ffirst results that he
came up with was the proof of "undecidability" of whether a program is 
a virus or not.  This means that I can give you the "source" of a program
and there is no way for you to decide whether it will act as a virus or not.
As Matt pointed out, the only "secure" system is an isolated, un-changing
system; one that would be of very little use to anybody.

Virus detectors and "antidotes" are just temporary band-aids, until 
"intelligent" virus writers develop viruses that we con't detect or figure
out how they work.  That time is certainly not that far away.

-- Marco Papa 'Doc'
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