Frankenstein Code Stitches Code Bodies Together To Hide Malware

mikejuk writes "A recent research technique manages to hide malware by stitching together bits of program that are already installed in the system to create the functionality required. Although the Frankenstein system is only a proof of concept, and the code created just did some simple tasks, sorting and XORing, without having the ability to replicate, computer scientists from University of Texas, Dallas, have proved that the method is viable. What it does is to scan the machine's disk for fragments of code, gadgets, that do simple standard tasks. Each task can have multiple gadgets that can be used to implement it and each gadget does a lot of irrelevant things as well as the main task. The code that you get when you stitch a collection of gadgets together is never the same and this makes it difficult to detect the malware using a signature. Compared to the existing techniques of hiding malware the Frankenstein approach has lots of advantages — the question is, is it already in use?" Except for the malware part, this has a certain familiar ring.

Comments

I propose a new system.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think that when your payday comes around at work, once a week or every two weeks or every month, they should arrange a system where there are two desks on the way out of the building. At the first, you are given your gross pay in cash. Then, you walk 10 meters down the hallway, and before exiting the building you must stop at a second desk. At that desk, there is a person wearing an official uniform with a US flag and the IRS emblem on it. At this second desk, you must count out whatever your federal withholding would have been and hand over that amount of cash to the IRS agent. You are then authorized to leave. If you refuse to pay, you are arrested for tax evasion. If we implemented this system, I think people would be much more interested in how government spends our money and how much of it they are spending.