AbstractDetectionofComputerViruses.pdfVIP

Abstract Detection of Computer Viruses G. Bonfante, M. Kaczmarek, and J.-Y. Marion Loria, Calligramme project, B.P. 239, 54506 Vandœuvre-l`es-Nancy C´edex, France, ´ and Ecole Nationale Sup´erieure des Mines de Nancy, INPL, France. 1 Introduction Computer viruses are an omnipresent issue of information technology, a lot of books discusse thier practical issues, see [6] or [9]. But, as far as we know, there are only a few theoretical studies on this topic. This situation is amazing because the term “computer virus” comes from the seminal theoretical works of Cohen [2–4] and Adleman [1] in the mid-1980’s. We do think that theoretical point of view on computer viruses may bring some new insights to the area, as it is also advocated for example by Filiol [5], an expert on computer viruses and cryptology, or Zuo and Zhou [10]. Indeed, a deep comprehension of viral mechanisms is from our point of view a promising way to suggest new directions on virus detection and defense. This being said, the first question is what is a virus? We try to give an answer in sect. 2. Then, sect. 3 studies detection strategies widely used by antiviruses. The proofs of the theorems and some illustration are gi