“It’s been mathematically proven [anti-virus can't stop viruses]”
What analysis was Bruce Schneier referencing when he wrote:
Viruses have no “cure.” It’s been mathematically proven that it is always possible to write a virus that any existing antivirus program can’t stop." [0]
[0] Secrets & Lies. Bruce Schneier. Page 154
virus antivirus
edited 1 hour ago
forest
34.4k16113118
asked 3 hours ago
CateCate
111
New contributor
Cate is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
What analysis was Bruce Schneier referencing when he wrote:
Viruses have no “cure.” It’s been mathematically proven that it is always possible to write a virus that any existing antivirus program can’t stop." [0]
[0] Secrets & Lies. Bruce Schneier. Page 154
virus antivirus
edited 1 hour ago
forest
34.4k16113118
asked 3 hours ago
CateCate
111
New contributor
Cate is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
What analysis was Bruce Schneier referencing when he wrote:
Viruses have no “cure.” It’s been mathematically proven that it is always possible to write a virus that any existing antivirus program can’t stop." [0]
[0] Secrets & Lies. Bruce Schneier. Page 154
virus antivirus
edited 1 hour ago
forest
34.4k16113118
asked 3 hours ago
CateCate
111
New contributor
Cate is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
What analysis was Bruce Schneier referencing when he wrote:
Viruses have no “cure.” It’s been mathematically proven that it is always possible to write a virus that any existing antivirus program can’t stop." [0]
[0] Secrets & Lies. Bruce Schneier. Page 154
virus antivirus
virus antivirus
edited 1 hour ago
forest
34.4k16113118
asked 3 hours ago
CateCate
111
New contributor
Cate is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 1 hour ago
forest
34.4k16113118
asked 3 hours ago
CateCate
111
New contributor
Cate is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 1 hour ago
forest
34.4k16113118
edited 1 hour ago
forest
34.4k16113118
edited 1 hour ago
forest
34.4k16113118
34.4k16113118
asked 3 hours ago
CateCate
111
New contributor
Cate is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 3 hours ago
CateCate
111
asked 3 hours ago
CateCate
111
111
New contributor
Cate is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Cate is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Cate is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
Under one possible interpretation of that, it's a result of Rice's theorem. A program is malicious if it performs some malicious action, which makes it a semantic property. Some programs are malicious and some aren't, which makes it a non-trivial property. Thus, by Rice's theorem, it's undecidable in the general case whether a program is malicious.
answered 1 hour ago
Joseph SibleJoseph Sible
1,230314
Ah I think this is indeed what Schneier was referencing. This answer is better than mine.
– forest
1 hour ago
I'm not a mathematician, but I might guess that Godel's incompleteness theorems might also apply.
– Steve Sether
49 mins ago
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "162"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Cate is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fsecurity.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f201992%2fit-s-been-mathematically-proven-anti-virus-cant-stop-viruses%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Under one possible interpretation of that, it's a result of Rice's theorem. A program is malicious if it performs some malicious action, which makes it a semantic property. Some programs are malicious and some aren't, which makes it a non-trivial property. Thus, by Rice's theorem, it's undecidable in the general case whether a program is malicious.
answered 1 hour ago
Joseph SibleJoseph Sible
1,230314
Ah I think this is indeed what Schneier was referencing. This answer is better than mine.
– forest
1 hour ago
I'm not a mathematician, but I might guess that Godel's incompleteness theorems might also apply.
– Steve Sether
49 mins ago
add a comment |
Under one possible interpretation of that, it's a result of Rice's theorem. A program is malicious if it performs some malicious action, which makes it a semantic property. Some programs are malicious and some aren't, which makes it a non-trivial property. Thus, by Rice's theorem, it's undecidable in the general case whether a program is malicious.
answered 1 hour ago
Joseph SibleJoseph Sible
1,230314
Ah I think this is indeed what Schneier was referencing. This answer is better than mine.
– forest
1 hour ago
I'm not a mathematician, but I might guess that Godel's incompleteness theorems might also apply.
– Steve Sether
49 mins ago
add a comment |
Under one possible interpretation of that, it's a result of Rice's theorem. A program is malicious if it performs some malicious action, which makes it a semantic property. Some programs are malicious and some aren't, which makes it a non-trivial property. Thus, by Rice's theorem, it's undecidable in the general case whether a program is malicious.
answered 1 hour ago
Joseph SibleJoseph Sible
1,230314
Under one possible interpretation of that, it's a result of Rice's theorem. A program is malicious if it performs some malicious action, which makes it a semantic property. Some programs are malicious and some aren't, which makes it a non-trivial property. Thus, by Rice's theorem, it's undecidable in the general case whether a program is malicious.
answered 1 hour ago
Joseph SibleJoseph Sible
1,230314
answered 1 hour ago
Joseph SibleJoseph Sible
1,230314
answered 1 hour ago
Joseph SibleJoseph Sible
1,230314
answered 1 hour ago
Joseph SibleJoseph Sible
1,230314
1,230314
Ah I think this is indeed what Schneier was referencing. This answer is better than mine.
– forest
1 hour ago
I'm not a mathematician, but I might guess that Godel's incompleteness theorems might also apply.
– Steve Sether
49 mins ago
add a comment |
Ah I think this is indeed what Schneier was referencing. This answer is better than mine.
– forest
1 hour ago
I'm not a mathematician, but I might guess that Godel's incompleteness theorems might also apply.
– Steve Sether
49 mins ago
Ah I think this is indeed what Schneier was referencing. This answer is better than mine.
– forest
1 hour ago
Ah I think this is indeed what Schneier was referencing. This answer is better than mine.
– forest
1 hour ago
I'm not a mathematician, but I might guess that Godel's incompleteness theorems might also apply.
– Steve Sether
49 mins ago
I'm not a mathematician, but I might guess that Godel's incompleteness theorems might also apply.
– Steve Sether
49 mins ago
add a comment |
Cate is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Cate is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Cate is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Cate is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Thanks for contributing an answer to Information Security Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fsecurity.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f201992%2fit-s-been-mathematically-proven-anti-virus-cant-stop-viruses%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
