Symantec has been awarded a patent for a five-year-old technology that allows anti-virus researchers to scan multiple parts of a file for signs of virus infections.
The US Patent and Trademark Office awarded Symantec patent 6,851,057 for "Data driven detection of viruses". The technology has been used across Symantec's anti-virus product line since 1999, according to Carey Nachenberg, the inventor and a chief architect in Symantec's antivirus labs.
The patent specifically refers to a "virus detection system (that) operates under the control of P-code to detect the presence of a virus in a file having multiple entry points," but the reach of the patent could be much more broad, said Michael Schallop, director of intellectual property at Symantec. "What's patented is a technology to use an intermediate language to drive anti-virus functionality such as scanning and emulation," he said.
That could refer to any technology that allows anti-virus researchers or anti-virus products to use scripting to determine, dynamically, where in a file to scan and detect threats. It could also include the use of javascript or other common scripting languages to direct anti-virus scanning, Schallop said.
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