Scientists Developed AntiMalware Suit "A3"- Detects Never-Before-Seen Malwares

Computer scientists from Utah University have developed a AntiMalware Suit “A3” that detects and eradicates never-before-seen malicious programs, also automatically repairs damage caused by them. AntiMalware Suit then prevents the invader from ever infecting the computer again.

A3 (Advanced Adaptive Applications), was co-developed by Massachusetts-based defense contractor, Raytheon BBN, and was funded by Clean-Slate Design of Resilient, Adaptive, Secure Hosts, a program of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The four-year project was completed in late September.

Eric Eide, research assistant professor says,  A3 is a open source software suite that works with a virtual machine – a virtual computer that emulates the operations of a computer without dedicated hardware. A3 is designed to protect servers or similar business-grade computers that run on the Linux operating system. It also has been demonstrated to protect military applications.

Eide said, “A3 technologies could find their way into consumer products someday, which would help consumer devices protect themselves against fast-spreading malware or internal corruption of software components.  But we haven’t tried those experiments yet.”

They have created “stackable debuggers,” multiple de-bugging applications that run on top of each other and look inside the virtual machine while it is running, constantly monitoring for any out-of-the-ordinary behavior in the computer.

Interesting thing about A3 is, there is no virus databases in the software like all other virus scanners. But it checks for malicious activities in computers to detect and eliminate viruses or malwares from the computer system.

A3 could be used in the consumer space, such as in web services like Amazon. If a virus or attack stops the service, A3 could repair it in minutes without having to take the servers down.

The team tested A3's effectiveness with the infamous bug shellshock , the result was amazing – A3 discovered the Shellshock attack on a Web server and repaired the damage in four minutes.

“It is a pretty big deal that a computer system could automatically, and in a short amount of time, find an acceptable fix to a widespread and important security vulnerability,” Eide says. “It’s pretty cool when you can pick the Bug of the Week and it works.”