Viruses & Application Security

Agenda• What Is Computer Virus• Symptoms• How does it spread• Types Of Viruses• Other Programs similar to Viruses• Application Security • Why Application Security Is Important• Why Often Application Security Is Ignored• Basic Security Concepts• Securing the Application • Conclusion

What is a computer virus?• Computer viruses are a type of software program that is like a

biological virus, replicate and spread without the users knowledge

• Some virus may display only a message on the screen, others may slow down the Pc

• They can also erase files or even format your floppy or hard disk and crash the system

Symptoms• Letters looks like they are falling to the bottom of the screen.

• The computer system becomes slow.

• The size of available free memory reduces.

• The hard disk runs out of space.

• The computer does not boot.

How does it spread

• Computer viruses spread by attaching themselves to other computer program files

• When you exchange a file from pen drive with virus into our Pc, the virus spreads from one file to the another

• Viruses also spreads when a Computer Engineer comes to repair your system and puts his/her diagnostics disks in your PC

Programs Effecting Computers Computer Viruses Malwares Worms Trojan horses Spyware Adware

Types of viruses

Resident Direct Action Overwrite Boot Macro Directory

Polymorphic

File Infectors

Companion

Fat

Logic Bombs

Resident Virus A virus that takes up permanent residence in the RAM

memory. It can take over or interupt any operation executed by the computer system. It can corrupt files and programs; such as copy, open, close, rename and more.

Examples: Randex, CMJ, Meve, and MrKlunky.

Direct Action Virus A batch file that resides in the root directory of the hard disk.

When executed it will infect files in the directory and also directed to the batch file AUTOEXEC.BAT file PATH.

Overwrite Virus A virus that deletes of overwrites part or all of the information

in a file, making them partially or totally worthless. To get rid of the virus, the file has to be deleted.

Examples of this virus include: Way, Trj.Reboot, Trivial.88.D.

Boot Virus• A virus that affects the boot sector of the hard drive or a

floppy drive. The boot sector gives the computer information on how to boot, if it is not functioning the computer won't boot. To avoid a boot virus, don't boot your computer with an unknown floppy disk in your floppy drive and make sure it is write protected.

Examples of boot viruses include: Polyboot.B, AntiEXE.

Macro Virus A virus written in a macro language that infects the files that

were created with it. When the file is opened the macro virus runs automatically. This may arrive on your computer by email attachment.

Examples of macro viruses: Relax, Melissa.A, Bablas, O97M/Y2K.

Directory Virus Directory viruses will replace an existing executable and

move the real file somewhere else, so when you run it you are unknowingly running the virus program instead of the original. It then becomes impossible to find the original file.

Polymorphic Virus Viruses that encode or encrypt themselves so that each new

version is different. This enables them to replicate and very hard for virus scanners to track down.

File Infectors The majority of viruses are file infectors. This virus is

activated by running an executable file like .exe or .com extension files. Once run, the virus does its damage according to the program in the executable file.

Companion Virus Once the system is infected they accompany the files that

already exist. They can lay in wait or take action immediately.

Some examples include: Stator, Asimov.1539, and Terrax.1069

Fat Virus This virus will only infect a computer running a file

allocation table (FAT) file system. This virus will prevent access to parts of the hard drive preventing files to be accessed Newer windows computers use NTFS and don't need to worry about this virus.

Computers Must Exist within a Secure Infrastructure

Harden systems Use concept of least-privilege Patch management Firewalls Using Anti Virus Programs Intrusion detection Virus protection

Application Security An application is a program or group of programs designed for

end users.

Security is the degree of resistance to, or protection from, harm. It applies to any vulnerable and valuable asset, such as a person, dwelling, community, nation, or organization.

Application security is the use of software, hardware, and procedural methods to protect applications from external and internal threats. 

Why Is Application Security Important?• New threats emerge every day• Some hackers are not satisfied with penetrating your

network, they seek information that resides in your applications/databases

• Applications are often with poor designs, software bugs, and poor programming practices

• Applications may be a fast and have an easy entry point into a secure network

• Applications contain and process your most critical (important and sensitive) information

• Programming logic may be exposed to the possibility of being attacked just as troublesome as difficulties inherent with certain technologies

Why Is Application Security Often Ignored?

Usually there are time and budget constraints in application development that cause proper testing and secure programming training to fall to the way aside

Security is typically not prioritized by programming teams, they are paid to deliver functionality first and foremost

E-commerce initiatives are often rushed into production Organizations often expect the software manufacturer “build in”

security is 80% process driven, 20% software driven

Four Basic Security ConceptsPoor application security measures can lead to breaches in data: Data Integrity Confidentiality Availability Accountability

Data Integrity• Data Integrity means having a secure and reliable data in the

database

• Protection of information from tampering, forgery, or accidental changes.

Examples:• January 2004, there were 13,654 known attacks on Linux Servers

Confidentiality Ensures that applications and data is accessible to only the users

intended and authorized to have access.

Examples : While Login in Providing Id’s and Passwords

Availability Ensures that authorized users have access to the application and

the data when required. Example: Microsoft Developer Store

Checking PNR Status Indian Railway Systems

Accountability Within the Application

Ensure accuracy of data and guide against unauthorized modifications

Who did what with your data?

Examples : Having Notification To Our Mobiles From Social Networking Sites

Securing the Application Authentication & Identification Authorization & Access Control Logging & Auditing Procedures Managing User Sessions Cryptography

Examples: Ceaser Cipher Text Modification, RSA Algorithms etc

ConclusionEvery Application must be developed in Ethical hacking perspective

Prevent the loss, modification, or misuse of application systems “data” or application architecture. Here we are focusing on web-enabled systems

Making an e-commerce application secure is much harder than just adding a password protected login screen!

Thank You