Attacking the Antivirus:

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Attacking the Antivirus:

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• Arts

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• Publié par: onytodor
• Nombre de lectures: 36
• Langue: English

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Attacking Antivirus

Feng Xue

Technical Lead, Nevis Labs.

Nevis Networks, Inc.

ABSTRACT Antivirus solutions are now a common component of computer systems. However, security issues pertaining to the antivirus software itself have not captured enough attentions of antivirus vendors and computer users.

This paper discusses why antivirus software is vulnerable to various attacks and why its security is so critical. It examines the tools and techniques, especially fuzzing techniques, used by attackers to expose vulnerabilities in antivirus solutions. It also looks at the ways in which attackers exploit these vulnerabilities

The paper thus aims to raise levels of consciousness about the security of the security product.

KEYWORDS :   Antivirus, Audit, Exploitation, Fuzzing, Security product

1. INTRODUCTION According to the U.S. national vulnerability database [1], as shown in Figure 1, 165 vulnerabilities have been reported in antivirus software in the past 4 years.

Antivirus Vulnerabilities

52 44

60

60 50 40 30 20 9 10 0 2004 2005 2006 2007

Figure 1   National Vulnerability Database

Thus, it is clear that antivirus software can be targeted just likes other components or services of computer systems.

Section 2 discusses why antivirus software is vulnerable to attacks. Section 3 discusses the techniques used to unravel vulnerabilities of antivirus software -- source code audits for example, or reverse engineering and fuzzing. Exploitation techniques will be examined in Section 4. .