Behavioral malware detection using an interpreter virtual machine

Abstract

Described systems and methods allow protecting a computer system from computer security threats such as malware and spyware. In some embodiments, a security application executes a set of detection routines to determine whether a set of monitored entities (processes, threads, etc.) executing on the computer system comprise malicious software. The detection routines are formulated in bytecode and executed within a bytecode translation virtual machine. Execution of a detection routine comprises translating bytecode instructions of the respective routine into native processor instructions, for instance via interpretation or just-in-time compilation. Execution of the respective routines is triggered selectively, due to the occurrence of specific events within the protected client system. Detection routines may output a set of scores, which may be further used by the security application to determine whether a monitored entity is malicious.