Author Topic: A Theory of Malware  (Read 4466 times)

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Offline MyndFyre

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A Theory of Malware
« on: March 01, 2011, 12:35:32 am »
I was paging through a journal tonight from the ACM and I came across this article that advocated teaching a curriculum about malware in higher education.  I was a little skeptical of this until I read the author's thought "The reason we haven't solved the problem of malware is that we don't have a theory of malware."  Then I went from being a little skeptical to thinking the author was utterly ridiculous.

A theory that could completely encapsulate malware today would be so incredibly generalized (because it would have to encapsulate innumerable systems) that it would provide no value to solving such a problem, I think.

What do you think?  Do you think we just haven't academic-ized the problem enough?
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Offline Sidoh

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Re: A Theory of Malware
« Reply #1 on: March 01, 2011, 04:04:02 am »
Probably not, but I think that there would be some benefit to introducing the study of malware to an academic curriculum.  I don't think we're missing a "theory" of malware, but having a better understanding of it would probably help things a bit.

Offline iago

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Re: A Theory of Malware
« Reply #2 on: March 01, 2011, 08:10:06 am »
There are plenty of "theories" in security - like how to prove a system is secure. And guess what? They never work. :)

The problem with theories is that they tend to look at a certain set of factors. Pieces, inputs, outputs, calculations, etc. But it turns out that in security, the most dangerous problems are the ones that you don't realize exist (until it's too late). In other words, abusing the system.

A good example is threat modeling. I want a shirt that says, "I'm not in your threat model" - implying that your threat model doesn't (and can't) cover a sufficiently creative hacker.

Offline Chavo

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Re: A Theory of Malware
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2011, 06:06:00 pm »

Offline Sidoh

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Re: A Theory of Malware
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2011, 06:35:13 pm »
chavo, you're my hero.

Offline iago

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Re: A Theory of Malware
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2011, 12:46:39 am »
At least I spelled everything (more or less) right. :P

Offline Blaze

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Re: A Theory of Malware
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2011, 12:23:36 pm »
At least I spelled everything (more or less) right. :P


I don't see any misspellings.  :)
And like a fool I believed myself, and thought I was somebody else...

Offline iago

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Re: A Theory of Malware
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2011, 12:42:54 pm »
At least I spelled everything (more or less) right. :P


I don't see any misspellings.  :)

Presumably, s/thread/threat/. Unless it's a pun about shirts. In which case, Boo! :)

Offline Chavo

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Re: A Theory of Malware
« Reply #8 on: March 02, 2011, 01:14:47 pm »
or forum threads
* Chavo pretends the typo was intentional

Offline Sidoh

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Re: A Theory of Malware
« Reply #9 on: March 02, 2011, 03:17:57 pm »
Hah.  I didn't even notice that.

Don't worry, Chavo, you're still my hero.