Practical UNIX and Internet Security, 3rd Edition

Programmed Threats: Definitions

Computers are designed to execute instructions one after another. These instructions usually do something useful—calculate values, maintain databases, and communicate with users and with other systems. Sometimes, however, the instructions executed can be damaging or malicious in nature. When the damage happens by accident, we call the code involved a software bug. Bugs are perhaps the most common cause of unexpected program behavior.

But if the source of the damaging instructions is an individual who intended that the abnormal behavior occur, we call the instructions malicious code, or a programmed threat. Some people use the term malware to describe malicious software.

There are many different kinds of programmed threats. Experts classify threats by the way they behave, how they are triggered, and how they spread. In recent years, occurrences of these programmed threats have been described almost uniformly by the media as computer viruses and (in the more technical media) worms. However, viruses and worms make up only a small fraction of the malicious code that has been devised. Saying that all programmed data loss is caused by viruses is as inaccurate as saying that all human diseases are caused by viruses.

Experts who work in this area have formal definitions of all of these types of software. However, not all the experts agree on common definitions. Thus, we’ll consider the following practical definitions of malicious software:

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