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It shows how interactive propagation techniques—such as bribery and blackmail—can help malware survive and become entrenched, supported by a concrete example design. 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Bond, [George. Danezis](George. Danezis}@cl. cam. ac. uk)[}](George. Danezis}@cl. cam. ac. uk)[@cl. cam. ac. uk](George. Danezis}@cl. cam. ac. uk)  \n6th June 2006  \nAbstract  \nWe study malware propagation strategies which exploit not the incompetence or naivety of users, but instead their own greed, malice and short-sightedness. We demonstrate that interactive propagation strategies, for example bribery and blackmail of computer users, are e􀀋ective mechanisms for malware to survive and entrench, and present an example employing these techniques. We argue that in terms of propagation, there exists a continuum between legitimate applications and pure malware, rather than a quantised scale.  \n1 Introduction  \n“ The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike,  \nThe devil will come, and Faustus must be damned.”  \nThe Tragicall History of D. Faustus — Christopher Marlowe  \nComputer viruses and their payloads have developed through an interesting historical chain. Morris Jr.’s early example of a self-replicating program was caused signi􀀌cant damage to the early Internet through poor calibration of its propagation strategy [5] . In the age of 􀀍oppy disks, memory persistence across warm reboots, and multiple disk drives were the vectors of the highly destructive viruses that evolved as weapons in a war of kudos between hackers. In the age of Internet worms, exploits are a dime a dozen, and the most successful viruses use multiple infection vectors in parallel. Meanwhile, the payloads (temporarily impotent during the exploratory “development” phase) now perform targeted acts of malice against one site on the net or another, or are simply about money making. Modern worms are more concerned with creating and controlling botnets and sending spam than they are with deliberately upsetting users.  \nThe countermeasures used against the above schemes have also followed a similar evolution. They range from simple ‘computer hygiene’ (cold boot your computer), through user education, to sophisticated anti-virus software, which today include full virtual machines [6], thousands of virus detection templates, and constant patching to online systems. It is unlikely that in the near future any of these techniques will bring an end to malware propagation, and it is far more likely that the arms race between propagation and defence will continue ad in􀀌nitum. A key point is that, through all this evolution, it has been assumed that users are the enemies of the malware which (nearly by de􀀌nition)  \nacts against their interests.  \nBut in the study of all the sel􀀌sh schemes that use replicating code to achieve petty human end, have we in fact under-estimated the enemy? To better understand the spectrum of propagation techniques, we introduce the concept of the Satan Virus (named following the tradition from [7]) . This virus propagates and survives not only using the conventional arsenal of exploits and deception, but also employs interaction with the user. We present a concrete example which employs bribery and blackmail to acquire and retain hosts.  \nOur key contribution, following recent work on the economics of information security [1], is to demonstrate that malware can provide enough incentives to users for them ","cbCairjYAwXk3yYF","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCairjYAwXk3yYF","pdf",187727,14,"English","# Abstract\n# 1 Introduction\n# 2 The Satan Virus\n## 2.1 Design principles","[{\"question\":\"What key idea does the report introduce about malware propagation?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that malware propagation can exploit users’ greed and other darker traits through interaction, rather than relying on user incompetence.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the report describe interactive propagation strategies?\",\"answer\":\"It presents techniques such as bribery and blackmail that convince users to execute and retain malware on their systems.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the “continuum” claim regarding legitimate software and malware?\",\"answer\":\"The report contends that, in propagation terms, legitimate applications and pure malware lie on a continuum rather than being strictly separated categories.\"}]","A pact with the Devil - Technical report | PDF",35]