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Signature

Signature definition - hacker

In anti-virus software and intrusion detection systems (IDS), a pattern that the system looks for when scanning files or network traffic. This term should not be confused with a digital signature. Virus or worm signatures are increasingly hard to determine because malicious code has begun to use code-morphing techniquesÂ—such that each propagated new signature version looks somewhat different from that of the previous generation.

See Also: Anti-Virus Software; Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS); Polymorphic Virus; Virus; Worm.

Graham, R. Hacking Lexicon. [Online, 2001.] Robert Graham Website. http://www.linuxsecurity.com/resource_files/documentation/hacking-dict.html.

Webster's New World Hacker Dictionary Copyright © 2006 by Bernadette Schell and Clemens Martin.
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.