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Thread: How do Heuritic Scanners Work?

  1. #1

    How do Heuritic Scanners Work?

    Any idea how heuristic scanners work? I read a lot about how how the infected file is put in a "sandbox" and is checked for any activity...Wat exactly takes place??And secondly...is this really effective in detecting viruses?

  2. #2
    Senior Member
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    Neorage,

    A heuristic scanner searches elementary assembly language, in the hopes of detecting little known infections. They’re many false positives with this type of scanner because it tries to learn and make assumptions based on the behavior of the virus.

    cheerios

    edit: here's some links of interest for you:

    http://www.itsecurity.com/asktecs/oct2802.htm

    http://vx.netlux.org/lib/static/vdat/epheurs2.htm

    http://www.choice.com.au/goArticle.aspx?id=103097&p=1

  3. #3
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Well Neorage,

    Your heuristic scanner works on "algorithms" or rules............like if something tries to amend the registry, prepend or append to an executable, and so on............it will give you a warning.

    Now, your "sandbox" is a different concept.............here, an incoming executable is put in an area where it's activity is monitored...........if it tries to access areas outside the sandbox.............it is a cheater.

    A bit like home and away games...........heuristics are at home...........the sandbox is away?

    I hope that explains

  4. #4
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    Nihil,

    Thanks for cleaning it up and finishing his questions.

  5. #5
    Senior Member therenegade's Avatar
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    good post nihil

  6. #6
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    think i got a solution for that! and not only that if u want to know about working of anything you can just visit the website:


    www.howstuffworks.com

    happy surfing

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