Virus Programming

Everybody is scared of computer ‘virus’ as it does harmful actions on our computer. But when we look into the virus programming, we may certainly come out with the conclusion that it requires intelligence to code a virus.so it hought i pen down an article about basics of virus programing.

Logic
It is easy to mess-up the right program. For example, if you remove even a single byte from an EXE file, that EXE file won’t be usable! Virus program don’t have any specific rules. But it’s a common practice to include ‘signatures’ by virus creators. The main idea is to force the innocent user to run the programs. So certain viruses come along with so called ‘programmer utilities’ or ‘free tools’. Another thing is, it is easy to hang-up a working system using some ‘bad’ interrupts. Viruses use this logic too!

TSR viruses
When TSR got its popularity, crackers started using TSR concepts for virus programming. There was a time when people who knew TSR started writing their own TSR viruses. But when Windows operating system was introduced, TSR viruses lost their “popularity”.

I have written the following program. This is actually a TSR virus. It is not much harmful; it just changes the attribute (color) byte of the existing characters present on screen.

#ifndef __SMALL__
#error Compile with Small memory model
#else
#include

int i = 1;
char far *Vid_RAM = (char far *)0xb8000000;

void interrupt (*Int9)( void );
void interrupt MyInt9( void );

void interrupt MyInt9( void )
{
*( Vid_RAM + i ) = i;
if ( i>4000 )
i = 1;
else
i += 2;
(*Int9)( );
} /*--interrupt MyInt9-----*/

int main(void)
{
Int9 = getvect( 9 );
setvect( 9, MyInt9 );
keep( 0, 500 );
return(0);
} /*--main( )----*/

#endif

Though the program might not be that efficient , i've tried my level best. I do not have a stronghold programming myself.

Windows viruses
When Windows operating system was introduced, much of the DOS based viruses lost their “popularity”. Under Windows operating system, only certain viruses like “Boot sector virus” and “Disk formatting viruses” can do harmful actions. So crackers went for exploiting Windows. Windows based viruses exploit Internet ‘loopholes’. As VB Script even has access to Windows Registry, VB Script is commonly used for Windows or Internet based “spreading viruses”.

Anti-Viruses
As I said earlier, many virus programmers add signature to their program. So by checking the signature, we can find the name of the virus. Most of the anti-virus packages use this logic! The following table shows few viruses and their signatures. Let us see some of the standard viruses and their signatures :

Einstein - 0042CD217231B96E0333D2B440CD2172193BC17515B80042
Phoenix - 927 E800005E81C6????BF0001B90400F3A4E8
Spanz - E800005E81EE????8D94????B41ACD21C784
Necropolis - 50FCAD33C2AB8BD0E2F8
Trivial-25 -B44EFEC6CD21B8??3DBA??00CD2193B440CD
Trivial-46 - B44EB120BA????CD21BA????B80?3DCD21%2BA0001%4B440CD
SK - CD20B80300CD1051E800005E83EE09

you can find that writing anti-virus package is not a tough job. But understand the fact that checking out the signature is not 100% foolproof. You may find many of the buggy antivirus packages even point out the right programs as virus programs and vice-versa.

Top 5 viruses

Which viruses are the most successful ever? Here i present a selection of those that travelled furthest, infected most computers ... or survived the longest.

1) Love Bug (VBS/LoveLet-A)

The Love Bug is probably the best-known virus. By pretending to be a love letter, it played on users’ curiosity, spreading around the world in hours. The original version sends an email with the subject line ‘I LOVE YOU’ and the text ‘kindly check the attached love letter coming from me’. Opening the attachment allows the virus to run. If Microsoft Outlook is installed, the virus tries to forward itself to all addresses in the Outlook address book. It can also distribute itself to other newsgroup users, steal user information and overwrite certain files.

2) Kakworm (VBS/Kakworm)

Kakworm made it possible for users to become infected just by viewing infected email. The worm arrives embedded in an email message. If you are using Outlook or Outlook Express with Internet Explorer 5, the machine can be infected when you open or preview the infected email. The virus changes the Outlook Express settings so that the virus code is automatically included with all outgoing mail. On the 1st of any month after 5 pm, it displays the message ‘Kagou-Anti_Kro$oft says not today’ and shuts down Windows.

3) Melissa (WM97/Melissa)

Melissa is an email virus that uses psychological subtlety to spread rapidly. It appears to come from someone you know and to include a document you would definitely want to read. As a result, Melissa spread worldwide within a single day. Sends a message to the first fifty addresses in all the address books accessible by Microsoft Outlook, using the current user’s name in the subject line. There is an attachment containing a copy of the infected document. If the minute and day are the same when the document is opened (e.g. 10.05 am on the 5th), the virus adds text about the game Scrabble to the document.

4) Concept (WM/Concept)

Concept achieved instant success by being shipped accidentally on official Microsoft software. It was the first macro virus found in the wild and one of the commonest viruses in 1996-1998. The virus takes control with its AutoOpen macro, which Word runs automatically, and carries out infection with its FileSaveAs macro, which runs when Word saves a document. Many variants exist. When you open an infected document, a dialog box titled ‘Microsoft Word’ and containing the figure 1 appears. The virus includes the text ‘That’s enough to prove my point’ but this is never displayed.

5) Parity Boot

Parity Boot spreads on the boot sectors of floppy disks. Its success shows that boot sector viruses, which were commonest in the 1980s and early 1990s, can still thrive. This virus was still among the most commonly reported as recently as 1998. It was particularly common in Germany, where it was distributed on a magazine cover-disk in 1994. Displays the message ‘PARITY CHECK’ and freezes the computer. This mimics a genuine memory error. As a result, users often think that there is a problem with their computer’s RAM (Random Access Memory).

ANATOMY OF COMPUTER VIRUSES
~ THEY TOO HAVE A LIFE~

Here i'm going to post my technical seminar , which i presented in my final year of Engineering year 2008. Let me start of with what this paper is all about : The There has been considerable interest in computer viruses since they first appeared in 1981, and especially in the past few years as they have reached epidemic numbers in many personal computer environments. Viruses have been written about as a security problem, as a social problem, and as a possible means of performing useful tasks in a distributed computing environment. However, only recently have some scientists begun to ask if computer viruses are not a form of artificial life — a self-replicating organism. Simply because computer viruses do not exist as organic molecules may not be sufficient reason to dismiss the classification of this form of “vandalware” as a form of life.


You can always get back to me for more detail on computer viruses & malwares at ajaykumar127@gmail.com

The New meaning of P2P

I am writing this article to encourage the budding engineers out there to take concrete and meaningful steps to address the serious risks posed to our culture and to the entire humanity by today’s peer-to-peer (“P2P”) file-sharing technology. My concern here is to address issues relating problems of today as the use of P2P Networks to disseminate pornography invade privacy and infringe copyrights, P2P software may one day realize its potential as a means for facilitating a wide range of collaborative, project management, business planning, and academic/education activities. At present, P2P software has too many times been hijacked by those who use it for illegal purposes to which the vast majority of today’s computer users do not wish to be exposed.

The users need to be provided with the information necessary to understand this Technology and to make informed decisions concerning its use. P2P file-sharing technology works by allowing consumers to download free software that enables them to directly share files stored on their hard drive with other users. This type of direct access to one’s computer differentiates P2P file-sharing technology from garden-variety e-mail accounts and commercial search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

One substantial and ever-growing use of P2P software is as a method of disseminating Pornography, including child pornography. While at least some of today’s so called top companies do provide “filters” to help screen out unwanted files, including presumably those containing pornography, those filters appear to work by focusing on language in the file’s description or the file’s title rather than on the file’s content. P2P users interested in disseminating and receiving offensive or illegal material, such as child pornography, can simply use an innocuous file title and/or description in order to bypass those filters. Consequently, P2P users need to be made aware that they are exposing themselves, and their children, to widespread availability of pornographic material when they download and install P2P file-sharing programs on their computers.

Furthermore, P2P file-sharing technology can allow its users to access the files of other Users, even when the computer is “off” if the computer itself is connected to the Internet via Broadband. P2P users, including both home users and small businesses, who do not properly understand this software have inadvertently given other P2P users access to tax returns, medical files, financial records, personal e- mail, and confidential documents stored on their computers. Combating identity theft is the main priority , and government of our country has enacted slow motion laws to stop it. Consequently, P2P users need to be properly educated so that they will not inadvertently share personal files on their hard drives with other users of your P2P file-sharing technology.

P2P file-sharing programs also are being used to illegally trade copyrighted music, movies, software, and video games, contributing to economic losses. Being quite a download freak myself I gave up P2P for downloading movies and other copyrighted material after I hitting a massive ONE TERABYTE download. The Business Software Alliance estimates that its members lost $13 billion in revenue last year due to software piracy. According to a January 2007 CNN article, “U.S. software companies lose up to $170 billion a year in piracy according to the Software and Information Industry Association. Music companies lost more than $46 billion worldwide last year, according to the RIAA [Recording Industry Association of America] ”.

Also viewing the reports that P2P software is being used as a means of transmitting unwanted spyware and adware that is bundled with the P2P software. Spyware aids an individual or a corporation in gathering information about P2P users without their consent or in asserting control over P2P users’ computers without their consent. We hope that at least some P2P file-sharing services add encryption features to those services. The addition of such encryption features will make it more difficult, if not impossible, for law enforcement to police users of P2P technology in order to prosecute crimes such as child pornography. Encryption only reinforces the perception that P2P technology is being used primarily for illegal ends.

Every time a new communications medium is presented, pornography and erotica seem to be distributed using it. Unfortunately, we live in times in which there are people in positions of political and legal influence who believe that they should be able to define what is and is not proper, and furthermore restrict access to that material. We have also heard of cases in which people have had their computers confiscated for having a computer image on disk, which they were unaware was present, that depicted activities that someone decided violated "community standards." There have also been cases where individuals have been convicted of pornography charges, even though the material was not considered obscene where the system was normally accessed. And last of all, you can be in serious legal trouble for simply FTPing an image of a naked minor, even if you don't know what is in the image at the time you fetch it.

We should also point out that as part of any sensible security administration, you should know what you have on your computer, and why. Keep track of who is accessing material you provide, and beware of unauthorized use.

And on an ending note I would like to say that it is the duty of today’s youth to see to that the technology is not misused because it will take us in the direction we want it to go.

please step forward to put an end to this ...
ajay

Dummies guide to Strong passwords: How to create and use them


Your passwords are the keys you use to access personal information that you've stored on your computer and in your online accounts. If criminals or other malicious users steal this information, they can use your name to open new credit card accounts, apply for a mortgage, or pose as you in online transactions. In many cases you would not notice these attacks until it was too late.
Fortunately, it is not hard to create strong passwords and keep them well protected.

What makes a strong password???

To an attacker, a strong password should appear to be a random string of characters. The following criteria can help your passwords do so:

Make it lengthy. Each character that you add to your password increases the protection that it provides many times over. Your passwords should be 8 or more characters in length; 14 characters or longer is ideal.

Many systems also support use of the space bar in passwords, so you can create a phrase made of many words (a "pass phrase"). A pass phrase is often easier to remember than a simple password, as well as longer and harder to guess.

Combine letters, numbers, and symbols. The greater variety of characters that you have in your password, the harder it is to guess. Other important specifics include:

The fewer types of characters in your password, the longer it must be. A 15-character password composed only of random letters and numbers is about 33,000 times stronger than an 8-character password composed of characters from the entire keyboard. If you cannot create a password that contains symbols, you need to make it considerably longer to get the same degree of protection. An ideal password combines both length and different types of symbols.
Use the entire keyboard, not just the most common characters. Symbols typed by holding down the "Shift" key and typing a number are very common in passwords. Your password will be much stronger if you choose from all the symbols on the keyboard, including punctuation marks not on the upper row of the keyboard, and any symbols unique to your language.

Use words and phrases that are easy for you to remember, but difficult for others to guess. The easiest way to remember your passwords and pass phrases is to write them down. Contrary to popular belief, there is nothing wrong with writing passwords down, but they need to be adequately protected in order to remain secure and effective.

In general, passwords written on a piece of paper are more difficult to compromise across the Internet than a password manager, Web site, or other software-based storage tool, such as password managers.
Create a strong, memorable password in 6 steps

Use these steps to develop a strong password:

1. Think of a sentence that you can remember. This will be the basis of your strong password or pass phrase. Use a memorable sentence, such as "My son Aiden is three years old."

2. Check if the computer or online system supports the pass phrase directly. If you can use a pass phrase (with spaces between characters) on your computer or online system, do so.

3. If the computer or online system does not support pass phrases, convert it to a password. Take the first letter of each word of the sentence that you've created to create a new, nonsensical word. Using the example above, you'd get: "msaityo".

4. Add complexity by mixing uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers. It is valuable to use some letter swapping or misspellings as well. For instance, in the pass phrase above, consider misspelling Aiden's name, or substituting the word "three" for the number 3. There are many possible substitutions, and the longer the sentence, the more complex your password can be. Your pass phrase might become "My SoN Ayd3N is 3 yeeRs old." If the computer or online system will not support a pass phrase, use the same technique on the shorter password. This might yield a password like "MsAy3yo".

5. Finally, substitute some special characters. You can use symbols that look like letters, combine words (remove spaces) and other ways to make the password more complex. Using these tricks, we create a pass phrase of "MySoN 8N i$ 3 yeeR$ old" or a password (using the first letter of each word) "M$8ni3y0".

6. Test your new password with Password Checker. Password Checker is a non-recording feature on this Web site that helps determine your password's strength as you type.

Password strategies to avoid

Some common methods used to create passwords are easy to guess by criminals. To avoid weak, easy-to-guess passwords:

• Avoid sequences or repeated characters. "12345678," "222222," "abcdefg," or adjacent letters on your keyboard do not help make secure passwords.

• Avoid using only look-alike substitutions of numbers or symbols. Criminals and other malicious users who know enough to try and crack your password will not be fooled by common look-alike replacements, such as to replace an 'i' with a '1' or an 'a' with '@' as in "M1cr0$0ft" or "P@ssw0rd". But these substitutions can be effective when combined with other measures, such as length, misspellings, or variations in case, to improve the strength of your password.

• Avoid your login name. Any part of your name, birthday, social security number, or similar information for your loved ones constitutes a bad password choice. This is one of the first things criminals will try.

•Avoid dictionary words in any language. Criminals use sophisticated tools that can rapidly guess passwords that are based on words in multiple dictionaries, including words spelled backwards, common misspellings, and substitutions. This includes all sorts of profanity and any word you would not say in front of your children.

•Use more than one password everywhere. If any one of the computers or online systems using this password is compromised, all of your other information protected by that password should be considered compromised as well. It is critical to use different passwords for different systems.

•Avoid using online storage. If malicious users find these passwords stored online or on a networked computer, they have access to all your information.

The "blank password" option

A blank password (no password at all) on your account is more secure than a weak password such as "1234". Criminals can easily guess a simplistic password, but on computers using Windows XP, an account without a password cannot be accessed remotely by means such as a network or the Internet. (This option is not available for Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows Me, or earlier versions) You can choose to use a blank password on your computer account if these criteria are met:

• You only have one computer or you have several computers but you do not need to access information on one computer from another one .

• The computer is physically secure (you trust everyone who has physical access to the computer) The use of a blank password is not always a good idea. For example, a laptop computer that you take with you is probably not physically secure, so on those you should have a strong password.

How to access and change your passwords

Online accounts

Web sites have a variety of policies that govern how you can access your account and change your password. Look for a link (such as "my account") somewhere on the site's home page that goes to a special area of the site that allows password and account management.

Computer passwords
The Help files for your computer operating system will usually provide information about how to create, modify, and access password-protected user accounts, as well as how to require password protection upon startup of your computer. You can also try to find this information online at the software manufacturer's Web site. For example, if you use Microsoft Windows XP, online help can show you how to manage passwords, change passwords, and more.

Keep your passwords secret

Treat your passwords and pass phrases with as much care as the information that they protect.

• Don't reveal them to others. Keep your passwords hidden from friends or family members (especially children) who could pass them on to other less trustworthy individuals. Passwords that you need to share with others, such as the password to your online banking account that you might share with your spouse, are the only exceptions.

• Protect any recorded passwords. Be careful where you store the passwords that you record or write down. Do not leave these records of your passwords anywhere that you would not leave the information that they protect.

• Never provide your password over e-mail or based on an e-mail request. Any e-mail that requests your password or requests that you to go to a Web site to verify your password is almost certainly a fraud. This includes requests from a trusted company or individual. E-mail can be intercepted in transit, and e-mail that requests information might not be from the sender it claims. Internet "phishing" scams use fraudulent e-mail messages to entice you into revealing your user names and passwords, steal your identity, and more. Learn more about phishing scams and how to deal with online fraud.

• Change your passwords regularly. This can help keep criminals and other malicious users unaware. The strength of your password will help keep it good for a longer time. A password that is shorter than 8 characters should be considered only good for a week or so, while a password that is 14 characters or longer (and follows the other rules outlined above) can be good for several years.

• Do not type passwords on computers that you do not control. Computers such as those in Internet cafés, computer labs, shared systems, kiosk systems, conferences, and airport lounges should be considered unsafe for any personal use other than anonymous Internet browsing. Do not use these computers to check online e-mail, chat rooms, bank balances, business mail, or any other account that requires a user name and password. Criminals can purchase keystroke logging devices for very little money and they take only a few moments to install. These devices let malicious users harvest all the information typed on a computer from across the Internet—your passwords and pass phrases are worth as much as the information that they protect.

What to do if your password is stolen

Be sure to monitor all the information you protect with your passwords, such as your monthly financial statements, credit reports, online shopping accounts, and so on. Strong, memorable passwords can help protect you against fraud and identity theft, but there are no guarantees. No matter how strong your password is, if someone breaks into the system that stores it, they will have your password. If you notice any suspicious activity that could indicate that someone has accessed your information, notify authorities as quickly as you can. Get more information on what to do if you think your identity has been stolen or you've been similarly defrauded.

The Password Management Problem

It's that time again. You've been asked to change the password that gives you access to all your crucial systems and information. Or perhaps you need to enter yet another new password to access yet another application, document, or system.

Choosing Hard to Guess Passwords

It's tempting to pick something easy to remember, like spelling your user name backwards, or child's name, or a word from the dictionary. The problem is, the easier it is to remember, the easier it is for an intruder to steal.

Malicious intruders often gain access to a company's systems by stealing, or cracking, a password and account name, then posing as that user. If the intruder knows you, they can easily gain access by trying password combinations related to your family or hobbies. If they have physical access to your desk or digital assistant, their chances of getting into your accounts are even greater if you've used something personal for your password.

Hackers use readily available software to rapidly enter random dictionary words until they hit pay dirt, and it can take only minutes! The shorter the password, the faster it can be guessed. Even words spelled backwards, rearranged, or including numbers are not safe. A common misconception is that substitutions, such as replacing the letter l or i with the digit 1 will fool password cracking software. Password cracking programs are smart enough to do this too.

Examples of bad passwords include:

mydog2
bi11smith
yromem (memory backwards)
win4me
The safest solution for choosing good passwords is to use a randomly generated or seemingly random password that:
Is at least 6 characters long, and longer if possible.
Contains a mix of upper and lower case letters.
Includes numerals, special characters, and punctuation.
Is not based on any personal information.
Is not based on any dictionary word.
Examples of strong passwords include:

De2#vu
5sd$oiP
er89TI

Writing Down Passwords

If you have too many passwords, it is tempting to write them down -- after all, can you really remember 10 different passwords, that change at different times, some of which are rarely used?
Writing down passwords is a serious breach of security, because it means that anyone who can physically get to the piece of paper, sticky note or PDA that contains the password, can also log into systems with your accounts. Should a visiting vendor really be able to sign into the finance application? Should the janitor be able to read your mail?

A better solution is to create a single, strong password, and apply it to all of your login accounts. One password is easier to remember, and is more secure than a post-it note.

Reusing Passwords

Another temptation, when imagination fails, is to reuse old password values when the time comes to change your password. This is also a security problem, since the whole point of a regular password change is to limit the time available to an intruder to crack your password. If an old password is reused, intruders would have more time to crack them. If the old password was already compromised, the new one will compromise your security again.

If you cannot think of a new, secure password -- have a program, like P-Synch®, randomly generate one for you.

How to Choose a Good Password

Some security experts recommend using a password based on a mnemonic, such as an easily remembered phrase. For example, take the first letter of a each word in a phrase, then add a few special characters or numbers to it. For example, "lend me your ears" can become "lmye4%". "To be or not to be, that is the question" can become "2Bor!2b?".

This is good technique, but you may need some patience to think up a new phrase every time you change your password -- especially if you have to think of a different password for every system that you log into. This may lead some users to recycle some version of their old password - another security threat.

Another easy way to choose a good, safe password is to let an application like P-Synch do it for you. P-Synch makes remembering passwords easy by synchronizing passwords, so that you only have one password to remember, and that password works on every system.

P-Synch can provide a suggested list of randomly generated passwords, and reject passwords that do not comply with strong password rules, so that you always choose good passwords.

When to Change Your Password

Perhaps just as important as how to choose a new password is when to do it. New passwords are most easily remembered if you start using them immediately, and use them often. Don't change your password at the end of the day, the end of the week, or before a holiday. Instead, change your password in the morning, at the start of the week. Your mind will be clearer, and frequent use of the new password will reinforce your memory.

if you need any more information regarding this topic , feel free to mail me at my email address or drop in your comments here on my blog.
regards....
ajay