Just an FYI, Im into programming for 2 things, making games and security, so the purpose of this is to start to figure out the basic code behind a virus for educational purposes, not to try to destroy peoples comps :-P understandable if this is an inappropriate discussion and what not. GIMPS

A virus is made just like any other program. They can be written in any language. Basically anything can be a virus, it just needs to do a few basic things: 1) Replicate itself on a machine or across a network 2) attempt to remain invisible while doing so. But you don't want to make a virus, they are made by stupid people. Real genius is knowing that you can make malicious code, but refraining from doing so. People who make viri and other types of malicious code are sad, lonely, ignorant little nobodies. Don't be a sad, lonely, ignorant little nobody...be a happy, healthy, intelligent somebody. Chi They mostly come at night...mostly.

To add to what Chi already said: The only thing that comes close to being as low as a virus writer are those people that don't run any antivirus software. It's hard to believe, but even in this day and age, we hear of people surfing the net without even basic A/V protection. That's my two cents. Please let us know if you found someone's advice to be helpful.

you don't necessarily need A/V protection when surfing the web ... if you are not downloading stuff .., and not using IE ...

yea im not going to be a viri writer, I just wanted to figure out how to write it and then perhaps get an understanding of how Anti virus software detects and gets rid of it :). GIMPS

Suffice it to say that anti-virus programs look for virus signatures as well as activity. Signatures are simpy bytes that are found within the virus. The anti-virus programs must get updates to their definitions so that they can keep detecting new viruses (meaning that they know the byte code patterns for them). basically this is simply program code at the binary level. How they detect activity is simply by defining rules that when violated signify that virus-like activity is happening (such as non-user envoked deleting of files, or replication of files) Now that you know how they are found and how to write one...move on to something constructive. Don't waste your time as a wanna be virus writer...learn something useful. Chi They mostly come at night...mostly.

2 things: 1) simpy = simply 2) i know you say that you don't want to be a virus writer, but you keep saying that you want to know how to write one...well, you don't need to know how to write a virus to know how to fight against them. Chi They mostly come at night...mostly.