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Polymorphic algorithms make it difficult for such software to recognize the offending code because it constantly mutates. Malicious programmers have sought to protect their encrypted code from this virus-scanning strategy by rewriting the unencrypted decryption engine (and the resulting encrypted payload) each time the virus or worm is propagated.
A polymorphic engine (sometimes called mutation engine or mutating engine) is a software component that uses polymorphic code to alter the payload while preserving the same functionality. Polymorphic engines are used almost exclusively in malware , with the purpose of being harder for antivirus software to detect.
The technique was formalized in 1989 as "F-bounded quantification."[2] The name "CRTP" was independently coined by Jim Coplien in 1995, [3] who had observed it in some of the earliest C++ template code as well as in code examples that Timothy Budd created in his multiparadigm language Leda. [4]
Statement mutation is a process where a block of code is intentionally modified by either deleting or copying certain statements. Moreover, it allows for the reordering of statements within the code block to generate various sequences. [26] This technique is crucial in software testing as it helps identify potential weaknesses or errors in the ...
SMEG is an acronym for Simulated Metamorphic Encryption Generator. Messages within the two viruses Pile created with it, SMEG.Pathogen and SMEG.Queeg, suggest that it is also an allusion to the word smeg, used as a profanity by characters in the British TV series Red Dwarf. [1] The engine is designed to be used to add polymorphism to viruses.
The use of templates as a metaprogramming technique requires two distinct operations: a template must be defined, and a defined template must be instantiated.The generic form of the generated source code is described in the template definition, and when the template is instantiated, the generic form in the template is used to generate a specific set of source code.
Self-modifying code is also sometimes used by programs that do not want to reveal their presence, such as computer viruses and some shellcodes. Viruses and shellcodes that use self-modifying code mostly do this in combination with polymorphic code. Modifying a piece of running code is also used in certain attacks, such as buffer overflows.
Metamorphic code is used by some viruses when they are about to infect new files, and the result is that the next generation will never look like current generation. The mutated code will do exactly the same thing (under the interpretation used), but the child's binary representation will typically be completely different from the parent's.