Full Disclosure mailing list archives

Re: Show me the Virrii! (heuristics)


From: S G Masood <sgmasood () yahoo com>
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 04:17:17 -0800 (PST)

Hi Alex,

Good points.

To add an example, Swen was detected automatically as
"W32.Automat.AHB" by Norton AV before its signatures
were added. When Norton AV detects a new virus based
on heuristics, it usually identifies it as
"W32.Automat.*", with "Automat" probably standing for
"Automatically Detected".

Regards,

--
S.G.Masood




--- starlabs <ashipp () messagelabs com> wrote:
Does anyone have reliable reports of an antivirus
system firing 
off on a heuristic?

I'm not aware of ever having seen one; always seems
to be a
signature.


As part of my job I regularly evaluate antivirus
products. I have 
seen plenty of heuristic detections; all the engines
have different 
heuristic capabilities, so some detect more new
malware than others, 
and of course some also have more false positives
than others.

Your experience might be because you are using a
poor heuristic
engine, or because by the time you get a sample of a
real new
virus, your vendor has released a signature anyway,
even if they
detected it heuristically anyway.

My findings indicate that the state of the art is
that most 
new malware can be detected heuristically these
days.

Regards,

Alex





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