Abstract: Described systems and methods allow protecting a computer system from malware such as viruses, Trojans, and spyware. For each of a plurality of executable entities (such as processes and threads executing on the computer system), a scoring engine records a plurality of evaluation scores, each score determined according to a distinct evaluation criterion. Every time an entity satisfies an evaluation criterion (e.g, performs an action), the respective score of the entity is updated. Updating a score of an entity may trigger score updates of entities related to the respective entity, even when the related entities are terminated, i.e., no longer active. Related entities include, among others, a parent of the respective entity, and/or an entity injecting code into the respective entity. The scoring engine determines whether an entity is malicious according to the plurality of evaluation scores of the respective entity.

Abstract: Described systems and methods allow protecting a computer system from malware, such as viruses and rootkits. An anti-malware component executes within a virtual machine (VM) exposed by a hypervisor executing on the computer system. A memory introspection engine executes outside the virtual machine, at the processor privilege level of the hypervisor, and protects a process executing within the virtual machine by write-protecting a memory page of the respective process. By combining anti-malware components executing inside and outside the respective VM, some embodiments of the present invention may use the abundance of behavioral data that inside-VM components have access to, while protecting the integrity of such components from outside the respective VM.

Abstract: Described systems and methods allow protecting a computer system from malware such as viruses, Trojans, and spyware. For each of a plurality of executable entities (such as processes and threads executing on the computer system), a scoring engine records a plurality of evaluation scores, each score determined according to a distinct evaluation criterion. Every time an entity satisfies an evaluation criterion (e.g, performs an action), the respective score of the entity is updated. Updating a score of an entity may trigger score updates of entities related to the respective entity, even when the related entities are terminated, i.e., no longer active. Related entities include, among others, a parent of the respective entity, and/or an entity injecting code into the respective entity. The scoring engine determines whether an entity is malicious according to the plurality of evaluation scores of the respective entity.

Abstract: Described systems and methods allow protecting a computer system from malware, such as viruses and rootkits. An anti-malware component executes within a virtual machine (VM) exposed by a hypervisor executing on the computer system. A memory introspection engine executes outside the virtual machine, at the processor privilege level of the hypervisor, and protects a process executing within the virtual machine by write-protecting a memory page of the respective process. By combining anti-malware components executing inside and outside the respective VM, some embodiments of the present invention may use the abundance of behavioral data that inside-VM components have access to, while protecting the integrity of such components from outside the respective VM.