Signature-Based Detection

A file of virus patterns that are compared with existing files to determine if they are infected with a virus. The vendor of the antivirus software updates the signatures frequently and makes the available to customers via the Web.
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A virus that modifies its own code as it travels from system to system. The virus’s propagation and destruction techniques remain the same, but the signature of the virus is somewhat different each time it infects a new system.
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A virus that hides itself by tampering with the operating system to fool antivirus packages into thinking that everything is functioning normally.
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Virus that attacks the MBR. When the system reads the infected MBR, the virus instructs it to read and execute the code stored in an alternate location, thereby loading the entire virus into memory and potentially triggering the delivery of the virus’s payload.
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A virus that uses cryptographic techniques to avoid detection. In their outward appearance, they are quite similar to polymorphic viruses—each infected system has a virus with a different signature. However, they do not generate these modified signatures by changing their code; instead, they alter the way they are stored on the disk.
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