Malware

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Malware (a portmanteau for malicious software)[1] is any software intentionally designed to cause
disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain
unauthorized access to information or systems, deprive access to information, or which unknowingly
interferes with the user's computer security and privacy.[2][3][4][5][6] By contrast, software that
causes harm due to some deficiency is typically described as a software bug.[7] Malware poses
serious problems to individuals and businesses on the Internet.[8][9] According to Symantec's 2018
Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), malware variants number has increased to 669,947,865 in
2017, which is twice as many malware variants as in 2016.[10] Cybercrime, which includes malware
attacks as well as other crimes committed by computer, was predicted to cost the world economy $6
trillion USD in 2021, and is increasing at a rate of 15% per year.[11]

Many types of malware exist, including computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware,
spyware, adware, rogue software, wiper, and scareware. The defense strategies against malware
differ according to the type of malware but most can be thwarted by installing antivirus software,
firewalls, applying regular patches to reduce zero-day attacks, securing networks from intrusion,
having regular backups and isolating infected systems. Malware is now being designed to evade
antivirus software detection algorithms.[10]

Contents

1History

2Purposes

3Methods

3.1Trojan horse

3.2Rootkits

3.3Backdoors

3.4Infectious Malware

3.4.1Worm

3.4.2Virus

3.5Ransomware

3.5.1Screen-locking ransomware

3.5.2Encryption-based ransomware

3.6Grayware
3.6.1Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP)

3.7Droppers

4Evasion

5Risks

5.1Vulnerable software

5.2Excessive privileges

5.3Weak passwords

5.4Use of the same operating system

6Mitigation

6.1Antivirus / Anti-malware software

6.1.1Real-time protection

6.1.2Sandboxing

6.2Website security scans

6.3Network Segregation

6.4"Air gap" isolation or "parallel network"

7See also

8References

9External links

History[edit]

Main article: History of computer viruses

For a chronological guide, see Timeline of computer viruses and worms.

The notion of a self-reproducing computer program can be traced back to initial theories about the
operation of complex automata.[12] John von Neumann showed that in theory a program could
reproduce itself. This constituted a plausibility result in computability theory. Fred Cohen
experimented with computer viruses and confirmed Neumann's postulate and investigated other
properties of malware such as detectability and self-obfuscation using rudimentary encryption. His
1987 doctoral dissertation was on the subject of computer viruses.[13] The combination of
cryptographic technology as part of the payload of the virus, exploiting it for attack purposes was
initialized and investigated from the mid 1990s, and includes initial ransomware and evasion
ideas.[14]

Before Internet access became widespread, viruses spread on personal computers by infecting
executable programs or boot sectors of floppy disks. By inserting a copy of itself into the machine
code instructions in these programs or boot sectors, a virus causes itself to be run whenever the
program is run or the disk is booted. Early computer viruses were written for the Apple II and
Macintosh, but they became more widespread with the dominance of the IBM PC and MS-DOS
system. The first IBM PC virus in the "wild" was a boot sector virus dubbed (c)Brain,[15] created in
1986 by the Farooq Alvi brothers in Pakistan.[16] Malware distributors would trick the user into
booting or running from an infected device or medium. For example, a virus could make an infected
computer add autorunnable code to any USB stick plugged into it. Anyone who then attached the
stick to another computer set to autorun from USB would in turn become infected, and also pass on
the infection in the same way.[17]

Older email software would automatically open HTML email containing potentially malicious
JavaScript code. Users may also execute disguised malicious email attachments. The 2018 Data
Breach Investigations Report by Verizon, cited by CSO Online, states that emails are the primary
method of malware delivery, accounting for 92% of malware delivery around the world.[18][19]

The first worms, network-borne infectious programs, originated not on personal computers, but on
multitasking Unix systems. The first well-known worm was the Internet Worm of 1988, which
infected SunOS and VAX BSD systems. Unlike a virus, this worm did not insert itself into other
programs. Instead, it exploited security holes (vulnerabilities) in network server programs and
started itself running as a separate process.[20] This same behavior is used by today's worms as
well.[21]

With the rise of the Microsoft Windows platform in the 1990s, and the flexible macros of its
applications, it became possible to write infectious code in the macro language of Microsoft Word
and similar programs. These macro viruses infect documents and templates rather than applications
(executables), but rely on the fact that macros in a Word document are a form of executable
code.[22]

Many early infectious programs, including the Morris Worm, the first internet worm, were written as
experiments or pranks.[23] Today, malware is used by both black hat hackers and governments to
steal personal, financial, or business information.[24][25] Today, any device that plugs into a USB
port – even lights, fans, speakers, toys, or peripherals such as a digital microscope – can be used to
spread malware. Devices can be infected during manufacturing or supply if quality control is
inadequate.[17]

Purposes[edit]

Malware is sometimes used broadly against government or corporate websites to gather guarded
information,[26] or to disrupt their operation in general. However, malware can be used against
individuals to gain information such as personal identification numbers or details, bank or credit card
numbers, and passwords.[27][28]

Since the rise of widespread broadband Internet access, malicious software has more frequently
been designed for profit. Since 2003, the majority of widespread viruses and worms have been
designed to take control of users' computers for illicit purposes.[29] Infected "zombie computers"
can be used to send email spam, to host contraband data such as child pornography,[30] or to
engage in distributed denial-of-service attacks as a form of extortion.[31]

Programs designed to monitor users' web browsing, display unsolicited advertisements, or redirect
affiliate marketing revenues are called spyware. Spyware programs do not spread like viruses;
instead they are generally installed by exploiting security holes. They can also be hidden and
packaged together with unrelated user-installed software.[32] The Sony BMG rootkit was intended
to prevent illicit copying; but also reported on users' listening habits, and unintentionally created
extra security vulnerabilities.[33]
Ransomware prevents a user from accessing their files until a ransom is paid. There are two
variations of ransomware, being crypto ransomware and locker ransomware.[34] Locker
ransomware just locks down a computer system without encrypting its contents, whereas crypto
ransomware locks down a system and encrypts its contents. For example, programs such as
CryptoLocker encrypt files securely, and only decrypt them on payment of a substantial sum of
money.[35]

Some malware is used to generate money by click fraud, making it appear that the computer user
has clicked an advertising link on a site, generating a payment from the advertiser. It was estimated
in 2012 that about 60 to 70% of all active malware used some kind of click fraud, and 22% of all ad-
clicks were fraudulent.[36]

In addition to criminal money-making, malware can be used for sabotage, often for political motives.
Stuxnet, for example, was designed to disrupt very specific industrial equipment. There have been
politically motivated attacks which spread over and shut down large computer networks, including
massive deletion of files and corruption of master boot records, described as "computer killing."
Such attacks were made on Sony Pictures Entertainment (25 November 2014, using malware known
as Shamoon or W32.Disttrack) and Saudi Aramco (August 2012).[37][38]

Methods[edit]

These categories are not mutually exclusive, some malware may use multiple techniques.[39]

Trojan horse[edit]

A Trojan horse is a harmful program that misrepresents itself to masquerade as a regular, benign
program or utility in order to persuade a victim to install it. A Trojan horse usually carries a hidden
destructive function that is activated when the application is started. The term is derived from the
Ancient Greek story of the Trojan horse used to invade the city of Troy by
stealth.[40][41][42][43][44]

Trojan horses are generally spread by some form of social engineering, for example, where a user is
duped into executing an email attachment disguised to be unsuspicious, (e.g., a routine form to be
filled in), or by drive-by download. Although their payload can be anything, many modern forms act
as a backdoor, contacting a controller (phoning home) which can then have unauthorized access to
the affected computer, potentially installing additional software such as a keylogger to steal
confidential information, cryptomining software or adware to generate revenue to the operator of
the trojan.[45] While Trojan horses and backdoors are not easily detectable by themselves,
computers may appear to run slower, emit more heat or fan noise due to heavy processor or
network usage, as may occur when cryptomining software is installed. Cryptominers may limit
resource usage and/or only run during idle times in an attempt to evade detection.

Unlike computer viruses and worms, Trojan horses generally do not attempt to inject themselves
into other files or otherwise propagate themselves.[46]

In spring 2017 Mac users were hit by the new version of Proton Remote Access Trojan (RAT)[47]
trained to extract password data from various sources, such as browser auto-fill data, the Mac-OS
keychain, and password vaults.[48]

Rootkits[edit]

Main article: Rootkit

Once malicious software is installed on a system, it is essential that it stays concealed, to avoid
detection. Software packages known as rootkits allow this concealment, by modifying the host's
operating system so that the malware is hidden from the user. Rootkits can prevent a harmful
process from being visible in the system's list of processes, or keep its files from being read.[49]

Some types of harmful software contain routines to evade identification and/or removal attempts,
not merely to hide themselves. An early example of this behavior is recorded in the Jargon File tale
of a pair of programs infesting a Xerox CP-V time sharing system:

Each ghost-job would detect the fact that the other had been killed, and would start a new copy of
the recently stopped program within a few milliseconds. The only way to kill both ghosts was to kill
them simultaneously (very difficult) or to deliberately crash the system.[50]

Backdoors[edit]

Main article: Backdoor (computing)

A backdoor is a method of bypassing normal authentication procedures, usually over a connection to

a network such as the Internet. Once a system has been compromised, one or more backdoors may
be installed in order to allow access in the future,[51] invisibly to the user.

The idea has often been suggested that computer manufacturers preinstall backdoors on their
systems to provide technical support for customers, but this has never been reliably verified. It was
reported in 2014 that US government agencies had been diverting computers purchased by those
considered "targets" to secret workshops where software or hardware permitting remote access by
the agency was installed, considered to be among the most productive operations to obtain access
to networks around the world.[52] Backdoors may be installed by Trojan horses, worms, implants, or
other methods.[53][54]

Infectious Malware[edit]

The best-known types of malware, viruses and worms, are known for the manner in which they
spread, rather than any specific types of behavior and have been likened to biological viruses.[4]

Hex dump of the Blaster worm, showing a message left for Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates by the
worm's programmer

Worm[edit]

A worm is a stand-alone malware software that actively transmits itself over a network to infect
other computers and can copy itself without infecting files. These definitions lead to the observation
that a virus requires the user to run an infected software or operating system for the virus to spread,
whereas a worm spreads itself.[55]

Virus[edit]

Main article: Computer virus

A computer virus is software usually hidden within another seemingly innocuous program that can
produce copies of itself and insert them into other programs or files, and that usually performs a
harmful action (such as destroying data).[56] An example of this is a portable execution infection, a
technique, usually used to spread malware, that inserts extra data or executable code into PE
files.[57] A computer virus is software that embeds itself in some other executable software
(including the operating system itself) on the target system without the user's knowledge and
consent and when it is run, the virus is spread to other executable files.

Ransomware[edit]

Main article: Ransomware

Screen-locking ransomware[edit]

Lock-screens, or screen lockers is a type of “cyber police” ransomware that blocks screens on
Windows or Android devices with a false accusation in harvesting illegal content, trying to scare the
victims into paying up a fee.[58] Jisut and SLocker impact Android devices more than other lock-
screens, with Jisut making up nearly 60 percent of all Android ransomware detections.[59]

Encryption-based ransomware[edit]

Main article: Ransomware

Encryption-based ransomware, like the name suggests, is a type of ransomware that encrypts all
files on an infected machine. These types of malware then display a pop-up informing the user that
their files have been encrypted and that they must pay (usually in Bitcoin) to recover them. Some
examples of encryption-based ransomware are CryptoLocker and WannaCry.[60]

Grayware[edit]

See also: Privacy-invasive software and Potentially unwanted program

Grayware (sometimes spelled as greyware) is a term, coming into use around 2004, that applies to
any unwanted application or file that can worsen the performance of computers and may cause
security risks but which is not typically considered malware.[61][62] Greyware are applications that
behave in an annoying or undesirable manner, and yet are less serious or troublesome than
malware. Grayware encompasses spyware, adware, fraudulent dialers, joke programs ("jokeware"),
remote access tools and other unwanted programs that may harm the performance of computers or
cause inconvenience. For example, at one point, Sony BMG compact discs silently installed a rootkit
on purchasers' computers with the intention of preventing illicit copying.[33]

Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP)[edit]

Potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) or potentially unwanted applications (PUAs) are applications
that would be considered unwanted despite being downloaded often by the user, possibly after
failing to read a download agreement.[63] PUPs include spyware, adware, and fraudulent dialers.
Many security products classify unauthorised key generators as grayware, although they frequently
carry true malware in addition to their ostensible purpose. Malwarebytes lists several criteria for
classifying a program as a PUP.[64] Some types of adware (using stolen certificates) turn off anti-
malware and virus protection; technical remedies are available.[65]

Droppers[edit]

Main article: Dropper_(malware)

Droppers are a sub-type of Trojans that solely aim to deliver malware upon the system that they
infect with the desire to subvert detection through stealth and a light payload.[66]

Evasion[edit]
Since the beginning of 2015, a sizable portion of malware has been utilizing a combination of many
techniques designed to avoid detection and analysis.[67] From the more common, to the least
common:

evasion of analysis and detection by fingerprinting the environment when executed.[68]

confusing automated tools' detection methods. This allows malware to avoid detection by
technologies such as signature-based antivirus software by changing the server used by the
malware.[69]

timing-based evasion. This is when malware runs at certain times or following certain actions taken
by the user, so it executes during certain vulnerable periods, such as during the boot process, while
remaining dormant the rest of the time.

obfuscating internal data so that automated tools do not detect the malware.[70]

An increasingly common technique (2015) is adware that uses stolen certificates to disable anti-
malware and virus protection; technical remedies are available to deal with the adware.[65]

Nowadays, one of the most sophisticated and stealthy ways of evasion is to use information hiding
techniques, namely stegomalware. A survey on stegomalware was published by Cabaj et al. in
2018.[71]

Another type of evasion technique is Fileless malware or Advanced Volatile Threats (AVTs). Fileless
malware does not require a file to operate. It runs within memory and utilizes existing system tools
to carry out malicious acts. Because there are no files on the system, there are no executable files
for antivirus and forensic tools to analyze, making such malware nearly impossible to detect. The
only way to detect fileless malware is to catch it operating in real time. Recently these types of
attacks have become more frequent with a 432% increase in 2017 and makeup 35% of the attacks in
2018. Such attacks are not easy to perform but are becoming more prevalent with the help of
exploit-kits.[72][73]

Risks[edit]

Vulnerable software[edit]

A vulnerability is a weakness, flaw or software bug in an application, a complete computer, an

operating system, or a computer network that is exploited by malware to bypass defences or gain
privileges it requires to run. For example, TestDisk 6.4 or earlier contained a vulnerability that
allowed attackers to inject code into Windows.[74] Malware can exploit security defects (security
bugs or vulnerabilities) in the operating system, applications (such as browsers, e.g. older versions of
Microsoft Internet Explorer supported by Windows XP[75]), or in vulnerable versions of browser
plugins such as Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Acrobat or Reader, or Java SE.[76][77] For example, a
common method is exploitation of a buffer overrun vulnerability, where software designed to store
data in a specified region of memory does not prevent more data than the buffer can accommodate
being supplied. Malware may provide data that overflows the buffer, with malicious executable code
or data after the end; when this payload is accessed it does what the attacker, not the legitimate
software, determines.

Malware can exploit recently discovered vulnerabilities before developers have had time to release a
suitable patch.[8] Even when new patches addressing the vulnerability have been released, they may
not necessarily be installed immediately, allowing malware to take advantage of systems lacking
patches. Sometimes even applying patches or installing new versions does not automatically
uninstall the old versions. Security advisories from plug-in providers announce security-related
updates.[78] Common vulnerabilities are assigned CVE IDs and listed in the US National Vulnerability
Database. Secunia PSI[79] is an example of software, free for personal use, that will check a PC for
vulnerable out-of-date software, and attempt to update it. Other approaches involve using firewalls
and intrusion prevention systems to monitor unusual traffic patterns on the local computer
network.[80]

Excessive privileges[edit]

Users and programs can be assigned more privileges than they require, and malware can take
advantage of this. For example, of 940 Android apps sampled, one third of them asked for more
privileges than they required.[81] Apps targeting the Android platform can be a major source of
malware infection but one solution is to use third party software to detect apps that have been
assigned excessive privileges.[82]

Some systems allow all users to modify their internal structures, and such users today would be
considered over-privileged users. This was the standard operating procedure for early
microcomputer and home computer systems, where there was no distinction between an
administrator or root, and a regular user of the system. In some systems, non-administrator users
are over-privileged by design, in the sense that they are allowed to modify internal structures of the
system. In some environments, users are over-privileged because they have been inappropriately
granted administrator or equivalent status.[83] This can be because users tend to demand more
privileges than they need, so often end up being assigned unnecessary privileges.[84]

Some systems allow code executed by a user to access all rights of that user, which is known as over-
privileged code. This was also standard operating procedure for early microcomputer and home
computer systems. Malware, running as over-privileged code, can use this privilege to subvert the
system. Almost all currently popular operating systems, and also many scripting applications allow
code too many privileges, usually in the sense that when a user executes code, the system allows
that code all rights of that user.

Weak passwords[edit]

A credential attack occurs when a user account with administrative privileges is cracked and that
account is used to provide malware with appropriate privileges.[85] Typically, the attack succeeds
because the weakest form of account security is used, which is typically a short password that can be
cracked using a dictionary or brute force attack. Using strong passwords and enabling two-factor
authentication can reduce this risk. With the latter enabled, even if an attacker can crack the
password, they cannot use the account without also having the token possessed by the legitimate
user of that account.

Use of the same operating system[edit]

Homogeneity can be a vulnerability. For example, when all computers in a network run the same
operating system, upon exploiting one, one worm can exploit them all:[86] In particular, Microsoft
Windows or Mac OS X have such a large share of the market that an exploited vulnerability
concentrating on either operating system could subvert a large number of systems. It is estimated
that approximately 83% of malware infections between January and March 2020 were spread via
systems running Windows 10.[87] This risk is mitigated by segmenting the networks into different
subnetworks and setting up firewalls to block traffic between them.[88][89]

Mitigation[edit]
Antivirus / Anti-malware software[edit]

Anti-malware (sometimes also called antivirus) programs block and remove some or all types of
malware. For example, Microsoft Security Essentials (for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7) and
Windows Defender (for Windows 8, 10 and 11) provides real-time protection. The Windows
Malicious Software Removal Tool removes malicious software from the system.[90] Additionally,
several capable antivirus software programs are available for free download from the Internet
(usually restricted to non-commercial use).[91] Tests found some free programs to be competitive
with commercial ones.[91][92][93]

Typically, antivirus software can combat malware in the following ways:

Real-time protection: They can provide real time protection against the installation of malware
software on a computer. This type of malware protection works the same way as that of antivirus
protection in that the anti-malware software scans all incoming network data for malware and
blocks any threats it comes across.

Removal: Anti-malware software programs can be used solely for detection and removal of malware
software that has already been installed onto a computer. This type of anti-malware software scans
the contents of the Windows registry, operating system files, and installed programs on a computer
and will provide a list of any threats found, allowing the user to choose which files to delete or keep,
or to compare this list to a list of known malware components, removing files that match.[94]

Sandboxing: Provide sandboxing of apps considered dangerous (such as web browsers where most
vulnerabilities are likely to be installed from).[95]

Real-time protection[edit]

A specific component of anti-malware software, commonly referred to as an on-access or real-time

scanner, hooks deep into the operating system's core or kernel and functions in a manner similar to
how certain malware itself would attempt to operate, though with the user's informed permission
for protecting the system. Any time the operating system accesses a file, the on-access scanner
checks if the file infected or not. Typically, when an infected file is found, execution is stopped and
the file is quarantined to prevent further damage with the intention to prevent irreversible system
damage. Most AVs allow users to override this behaviour. This can have a considerable performance
impact on the operating system, though the degree of impact is dependent on how many pages it
creates in virtual memory.[96]

Sandboxing[edit]

Because many malware components are installed as a result of browser exploits or user error, using
security software (some of which are anti-malware, though many are not) to "sandbox" browsers
(essentially isolate the browser from the computer and hence any malware induced change) can also
be effective in helping to restrict any damage done.[95]

Website security scans[edit]

Website vulnerability scans check the website, detect malware, may note outdated software, and
may report known security issues, in order to reduce the risk of the site being compromised.

Network Segregation[edit]
Structuring a network as a set of smaller networks, and limiting the flow of traffic between them to
that known to be legitimate, can hinder the ability of infectious malware to replicate itself across the
wider network. Software Defined Networking provides techniques to implement such controls.

"Air gap" isolation or "parallel network"[edit]

As a last resort, computers can be protected from malware, and the risk of infected computers
disseminating trusted information can be greatly reduced by imposing an "air gap" (i.e. completely
disconnecting them from all other networks) and applying enhanced controls over the entry and exit
of software and data from the outside world. However, malware can still cross the air gap in some
situations, not least due to the need to introduce software into the air-gapped network and can
damage the availability or integrity of assets thereon. Stuxnet is an example of malware that is
introduced to the target environment via a USB drive, causing damage to processes supported on
the environment without the need to exfiltrate data.

AirHopper,[97] BitWhisper,[98] GSMem [99] and Fansmitter[100] are four techniques introduced by
researchers that can leak data from air-gapped computers using electromagnetic, thermal and
acoustic emissions.

See also[edit]

Botnet

Browser hijacking

Comparison of antivirus software

Computer security

Cuckoo's egg (metaphor)

Cybercrime

Cyber spying

Domain generation algorithm

Facebook malware

File binder

Identity theft

Industrial espionage

Linux malware

Malvertising

Phishing

Hacktivism

Riskware

Security in Web apps

Social engineering (security)

Targeted threat

Technical support scam

Telemetry software

Typosquatting

Web server overload causes

Webattacker

Zombie (computer science)

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External links[edit]

Look up malware in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Malware.

Malicious Software at Curlie

Further Reading: Research Papers and Documents about Malware on IDMARCH (Int. Digital Media
Archive)

Advanced Malware Cleaning – a Microsoft video

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