Understanding the mechanics of antivirus engines
When looking for dangerous software, security solutions use a variety of different techniques. It is essential to understand the methods that are employed by various security solutions to identify malicious software or to categorize it as such.
Static detection
A static detection technique is a basic form of antivirus detection that relies on the predefined signatures of malicious files. A signature is a collection of bytes or strings that are contained within malicious software and serve to make it obvious to identify. It is also possible to specify other requirements, such as the names of variables and functions that are imported. After a program has been scanned by the security solution, it will attempt to match it to a compilation of known rules.
These rules have to be pre-built and pushed to the security solution. YARA is one tool that’s used by security vendors to build detection rules.
It isn’t difficult...