Malware: Fighting Malicious Code

Summary

This chapter concentrated on threats and capabilities of malicious mobile code, defined as lightweight programs downloaded from a remote system and executed locally with minimal user intervention. Browser scripts, ActiveX controls, and Java applets are some of the most popular examples of mobile code that you may encounter while browsing the Web or reading HTML-formatted e-mail.

Browser scripts are embedded in HTML documents as plain-text commands designated by the script tag, and are usually written using JavaScript or VBScript. One of the ways in which an attacker can misuse the functionality available to the script is by overwhelming the browser with repetitive tasks. Malicious sites might also use scripts in an attempt to hijack the ...