Fragmented malware through RFID and its defenses

Abstract

Malware, in essence, is an infiltration to one's computer system. Malware is created to wreak havoc once it gets in through weakness in a computer's barricade. Antivirus companies and operating system companies are working to patch weakness in systems and to detect infiltrators. However, with the advance of fragmentation, detection might even prove to be more difficult. Malware detection relies on signatures to identify malware of certain shapes. With fragmentation, functionality and size can change depending on how many fragments are used and how the fragments are created. In this paper we present a robust malware detection technique, with emphasis on detecting fragmentation malware attacks in RFID systems that can be extended to detect complex obfuscated and mutated malware. After a particular fragmented malware has been first identified, it can be analyzed to extract the signature, which provides a basis for detecting variants and mutants of similar types of malware in the future. Encouraging experimental results on a limited set of recent malware are presented.