System and method for malware detection in peer-to-peer computer networks

Abstract

Disclosed are systems, methods and computer program products for malware detection in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network. In one example embodiment, a peer node of the P2P network receives a user request to download a data object from the P2P network. The peer node obtains a metadata object associated with the requested data object and extracts from the metadata object a checksum associated with the requested data object. The peer node then determines if the extracted checksum is associated with a malicious data object by comparing the extracted checksum with checksums of known malicious data objects stored in a local malware database. If the checksum of the requested data object matches a checksum of a malicious data object, the user request to download the data object form the P2P network is denied.