Definition

hybrid virus/worm

A hybrid virus/worm is malicious code that combines characteristics of both those types of malware, typically featuring the virus' ability to alter program code with the worm's ability to reside in live memory and to propagate without any action on the part of the user. According to Ed Skoudis, author of Malware: Fighting Malicious Code, most modern viruses fall into the hybrid category because, in addition to infecting files like a virus, they use the worm's propagation method to spread throughout a network.

Related glossary terms: RSA algorithm (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman), data key, greynet (or graynet), spam cocktail (or anti-spam cocktail), fingerscanning (fingerprint scanning), munging, insider threat, authentication server, defense in depth, nonrepudiation

This was last updated in October 2008

Posted by: Margaret Rouse

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Resources from around the Web
- Skoudis' book, Malware: Fighting Malicious Code is available from Amazon.
- Skoudis' Information Security article is called "Code Red? Nimda? Sobig? You ain't seen nothin' yet."

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