PORTLAND, Ore.The wide proliferation of wireless mobile computing devices like smartphones has increased global networks vulnerability to cyber security violations, according to Florida State University (FSU), which is pursuing an effort to immunize applications with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
By differentiating specific instances of application programs with unique executables, the researchers aim to remove the most common lever used by viruses and other malware, effectively immunizing them against spreading infections.
"Computer viruses exploit the fact that all instances of an application are identical," said FSU professor David Whalley. "The general idea is to prevent viruses from propagating by making each version of an application different."
Program differentiation is not a new idea, but traditional approaches are problematic, according to Whalley, who is collaborating on the project with fellow FSU professor Gary Tyson. Other attempts at program differentiation have resulted in performance penalties and behavior changes that produce maintenance nightmares, but the FSU professors believe they have the answer.
"We have proposed hardware and software enhancements supporting program differentiation that will not affect behavior, will minimize effects on performance, and will make it more difficult for malware to propagate," said Whalley.
The FSU approach provides a secure mobile computing environment that exploits mobile technologies that are already widely available to minimize the number of systems that can be infected by malware, rather than eliminate the possibility of infection altogether. The researchers maintain that if outbreaks can be confined to only a few systems, then conventional counter measures will become much more effective.
Since every approach to cyber security can be circumvented by determined hackers, the researchers are not revealing all the details of their approach, but merely stating that their technique modifies the application executables by permuting each instance into a unique version. The NSF sponsored research effort runs through 2012.