Technical Report TR2004-08-01 August 2004
Internetworking and Media Communications Research Laboratories
Department of Computer Science, Kent State University
http://medianet.kent.edu/technicalreports.html



Thesis Title: 

Model-Based Analysis of Two Fighting Worms

Zakiya M. Tamimi
ztamimi@kent.edu

Advisor: Dr. Javed I. Khan
Department of Computer Science
Kent State University

August 2004


Abstract:

Self-replicating malicious codes (worms) are striking the Internet vigorously. A particularly sophisticated recent introduction is the “killer” worm (also called counter-worm or “predator” worm). The goal of this research is to explore the interaction dynamics between a worm (prey) and an antagonistic worm (predator), using mathematical modeling. This research models several interesting combat scenarios of two fighting worms, including the effect of antivirus and system patches on the system behavior. There are few novel findings of our enhanced model, such as the prediction of oscillatory behavior of interacting worms population conforming to existing biological systems.



Last Modified: July 2006.