"Vircing" the InVircible: 0. Annotated Table of Contents.
Submitted by dmuth on Fri, 2006-02-24 12:21.
Papers
0. Annotated Table of Contents. Yes, we know. This is a very long paper. But it is not our fault that InVircible contains so many bugs and security holes which need to be described. Reading the whole document is strongly advisable, but if the reader nevertheless does not feel like doing it, here is an annotated table of contents. Users who are in a hurry can use it to locate the parts of particular interest and read them first. 0. Annotated Table of Contents. You are reading it. 1. Introduction. Describes what InVircible is and why we felt compelled to write this paper. 2. The Self-Checking Capabilities. Explains what self-checking is, why is it used, and how (un)reliable it is. 2.1. Bypassing the Self-Check. Five trivial ways to bypass InVircible's self-checking capabilities. 2.2. Damage to the User's Data. How the different programs from InVircible are damaging the user's data. 2.3. The Self-Checking Algorithms Outlined. Detailed description of the self-checking algorithms used by inVircible's programs. 2.3.1. Algorithm HeaderCheck. 2.3.2. Algorithm CheckSum. 2.3.3. Algorithm DecoyLaunch. 2.3.4. Algorithm AdvancedDecoyLaunch. 2.4. Usage of the Self-Checking Algorithms by InVircible's Programs. Lists which of the above algorithms are used by each particular program and in what order. 2.5. Summary. A summary of the "effectiveness" of InVircible's self-checking capabilities. 2.6. Testing the Self-Checking Algorithms with Real Viruses. Descriptions of some tests using existing viruses to demonstrate how InVircible's self-checking techniques fail. 3. The Scanner (IVSCAN). Test results showing the weak performance of the known-virus scanner provided with the package. 4. The Decoy Launcher (IVTEST). Describes what the decoy launcher does in addition to the other programs and why it is just as ineffective. 5. The Disk Editor (RESQDISK). Explains what the so-called "SeeThru" technique consists of, how ResQdisk uses it, and how it can destroy the user's data. 6. The Automatic Scan String Extractor (IVX). Lists some tests of the so-called "hyper-correlator", demonstrating how it can cause both false positives and false negatives and just confuses the user. 7. The File Integrity Checker (IVB). Mentions briefly what an integrity checker is, what the proper way to test it is, and how far such programs can be relied upon. 7.1. Stealth. Explains what the anti-stealth techniques are and how stealth viruses defeat IVB's anti-stealth techniques. 7.2. Fast Infection. Describes what fast infection is, how IVB tries to avoid it, and how it fails to do so. 7.3. Companions. Explains what companion viruses are. 7.3.1. Extension-Priority Companions. Describes this typical kind of companion viruses and shows that IVB is unable to detect them. 7.3.2. PATH Companions. Describes a more sophisticated kind of companion viruses - viruses which IVB does not detect either. 7.3.3. Alias Companions. Describes yet another kind of companion viruses that IVB is unable to detect. 7.4. Infection of Unusual Executable Objects. Lists which file extensions are protected by IVB. The next sections describe several kinds of infectable files, the infection of which IVB does not detect. 7.4.1. Macros. 7.4.2. Libraries. 7.4.3. OBJ Files. 7.4.4. PIF Files. 7.4.5. GRP Files. 7.4.6. DLL Files. 7.4.7. AVR Files. 7.4.8. BAT Files. 7.4.9. Device Drivers. 7.5. Kernel Infectors. Describes yet another kind of viruses which IVB is totally unable to detect. 7.6. Deleting the Database(s) of Checksums. Explains why the checksum databases used by IVB are poorly designed, what their format is, and how easy it is to fool the program by deleting the actual checksum databases. 7.7. Diskette-Only Infectors. Demonstrates that InVircible is unable to detect even such an old and well-known virus like Brain. 7.8. Slow Viruses. Lists some tests with yet other kind of viruses which completely bypass IVB's detection algorithms. 7.9. Unusual File Infection Techniques. Lists some ways used by some viruses to infect files - ways that are not detectable by IVB. 7.10. Windows Viruses. Explains why InVircible is unsuitable for protection of Windows applications. 7.11. Direct Attacks. Explains how viruses can be easily written to attack this particular anti-virus program and what flaws in its design let it happen. 8. The Bootstrap Integrity Checker (IVINIT). Describes how IVINIT works, how it can be bypassed easily by some viruses, and how it can make the user's disk non-bootable. 9. The User Interface. Describes some frustrating quirks in InVircible's user interface. 9.1 No Flexibility to Select on Which Drives to Install. Explains why InVircible cannot be installed on some machines. 9.2. Disk Space Wasting. Points out how wasteful of the user's disk space InVircible is. 9.3. Critical Error Handling. Lists situations in which InVircible just hangs. 9.4. Inflexible Report and Data Files. Describes how InVircible uses files with fixed names in particular directories and why this is a bad idea. 9.5. Clumsy AUTOEXEC.BAT Manipulation. Describes how the installation program can install the product improperly, disabling some of its detection capabilities and hindering its performance. 9.6. Peculiar Line Editing, Menus and Beeps. Lists many other small but annoying problems of InVircible's user interface. 9.7. The Rescue Diskette. Describes how sloppily InVircible handles the important task of creating a rescue diskette. 9.8. Corruption of the Database of Checksums. Points out a bug in IVB which makes it corrupt the databases of checksums if there are too many files in the directory. 9.9. Documentation. Lists a huge number of real gems of stupidity and incompetentness from inVircible's documentation. 9.10. Unstable Distribution and Prices. Shows that in just a couple of years four different companies in the USA alone have tried to distribute the product at several different prices. 10. Conclusion. Contains our final conclusion about InVircible after its careful examination and testing. 11. Acknowledgments. Expresses our gratitude to the few people who helped us to do those tests. 12. References. Contains bibliographic references to the papers quoted in this material.
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