Trustworthy Virus

georgemw at speakeasy.net georgemw at speakeasy.net
Tue Jun 12 08:46:13 PDT 2001


The concept of a "trustworthy virus" sounds like a joke,
but let's pretend to take ot seriously just a little while.

When the virus narcs on the suspect,  it really ought to
digitally sign the squealing,  otherwise the accusation could
have been made by any virus out there,  not necessarily
the reliable rat.

But is it possible in principle to keep its key secret?  I would
think that,  since the code has to exist on the target machine,
anyone with a disassembler and enough persistance can find the
key,  and once it's out,  it's out.  The formerly trusetd virus could
be impersonated by any comon virus, or even by someone that
isn't really a virus at all!

Yeah,  I know,  the whole thing is silly.  But is the reasoning 
correct?

George





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