Harmful code ? So if i post here a code of a virus you will punish me ? IMHO absolutely stupid You know, a week ago i was sitting in a library and reading a CS encyclopedia. So there was some info about viruses and a sample virus So what ?

I think discussing the principal of virus writing isnt dangerous ..the actual act is. The thing is to make a virus which some how exploits vernibility very inteligently is a big thing. Other wise ...by definition any dumb program which can copy itself by some virtue is a virus.

If we take a NO-NO attitutde towards even understanding virus writing it would hamper security research. I am not sure about the offical position of the forum on this matter though.

I agree with that !

Giving a hammer to a baby is not dangerous, as long as you know how to you use it and stay with him to prevent him to harm himself. Else, it's dangerous.

Ok, you got me again I won't try to play moderator again

-=jeroen=-

It would be much better if you were to learn how to program an anti-virus, at least that would be helpful and possibly financially reqarding as well. Learning to write a virus is of no value that I could think of except for wrecking other peoples affairs, or getting revenge for some real or imagined wrong.

You would of course learn a lot about viruses by learning how to KILL them, but if you choose to create and release some sort of virus and were to get caught you could possibly end up in a jail and fined heavily especially if it wrecked a bunch of corparations financial records or slowed down commerce.

I suggest learning how to get rid of viruses because the only real good thing about them is that those that track then virus down and learn to kill them are paid well for it.

This kid needs kicked as well as anyone who gives him information on how too. It's not like there aren't enough problems out there here is one more who wants to add his...

OK. I think moderators can close this topic now. Nobody needs it

But wait, this has grown into an interesting conversation!



Just one question for you? Think about all the people in Kaspersky Lab. I doubt that anyone could make an antivirus program with actually understanding a virus. And I don't mean understanding the definition from a book, but really knowing how the virus works, what are the weaknesses. So, in order to fight for the good side, you need to know how the evil side thinks.



Exactly. Why stop someone from making a virus for himself? Let him format his own hard drive, who cares! As long as he (or she, I don't underestimate the other sex ) doesn't put it online it's ok. I'm not really into laws, but even if it's illegal to make viruses for yourself, I don't think a single person would care. Just be yourself (and leave the rest of us alone ).

Hehe, actually, I just did a huge (by highschool standards) thesis on antivirus research and defense. So I had to learn a lot about how viruses work, and how to write one. It is a very interesting field. However, the book I used as my primary source made a good point of not including virulent code snippets, to prevent people from recreating the virus. However, all I'm going to say on the matter is if you really wish to know how to create one, various virus groups, such as the infamous VLAD have published numerous free resources on the web that are easy to find. That does not make astahost the proper forum to discuss them in great detail. And, assmebly is not a language to learn to make computer viruses. Especially since most viruses are moving into the realm of worms, higher level languages are used more and more frequently. Although assembly is my favorite languae, I do not like to see it used for illegal and damaging purposes. It is also extremely compex to code a virus that will work on any 32 bit protected mode OS, and assembly is the most difficult way to go. On the subject of antivirus technology however, writing a virus in assembly ca also be a dead give-away, as very few programs are written in assmebly anymore, and most compilers happen to place, thorugh ineffie\cienceies and the like, random jibberish and certain assembly instructions, such as NOP (Hex 90) into the code, so a well written assembly virus will immediately raise numerous flags. But no more from me lest I accidentally give away information that could do some harm. Simply put, we have a thread for this kind of talk, somewhere, and discussing it in detail would violate the astahost TOS. That does not mean we cannot discuss the whole idea of antivirus technolog, or share small, non-essential and damging ideas, but please remember these two simple rules of the net:

1) just because it is out there does not mean you can bring it in here
2) the TOS exist, abide by them whether they make sense or not.

Happy discussing, and if anyone would like to read my paper, or wants further info I found, PM me or just continue the discussion here, but let's make this a discussion worth something, not a debate over whether a tutorial on virus creation should be acceptible at astahost.

~Viz