Formalization of Viruses and Malware Through Process Algebras

Abstract virology has seen the apparition of successive viral models, all based on Turing-equivalent formalisms. Considering recent malware, these are only partially covered because functional formalisms do not support interactive computations. This article provides a basis for a unified malware model, founded on the Join-Calculus. In terms of expressiveness, the process-based model supports the fundamental notion of self-replication but also interactions, concurrency and non-termination to cover evolved malware. In terms of protection, detection undecidability and prevention by isolation still hold. Additional results are established: calculus fragments where detection is decidable, definition of a non-infection property, potential solutions to restrict propagation.