Month: September 2022

PSEUDO SELF-MODIFYING. "For machine-code, SelfModifyingCode would be machine-code running on the CPU that reaches into its own in-memory or on-disk representation and tweaks that representation. And, even in the case of FPGAs and transmeta toolsets where you have a CPU that is modifiable, it generally isn't self modifying." https://lnkd.in/dknBRJD View in LinkedIn

DISTINCTION. "In many situations commonly accepted as SelfModifyingCode, the machine code being modified is a different part of the program than that doing the modifying." https://lnkd.in/dknBRJD View in LinkedIn

GROWING DIGITAL GENE POOL. "Autonomously replicating entities have been considered as useful tools for information gathering, anti-virus software and distributed computing. Widespread use of such agents may provide a "gene-pool" of sophisticated code for mutation amid evolution. It has already been mentioned how the increase in computing activity will lead to more opportunity for mutation." https://lnkd.in/g5hUBjg View in LinkedIn

COMPUTER VIRUS GROWTH. "The move towards interconnection and compatibility provides a vast and rich ecosystem for the development of new species. Reason and experience with computer ecologies tells us that the smaller the instruction set of a program, the more likely a perturbation will result in a functional program. It follows therefore that the recent popularity of RISC (reduced instruction set) computers may lead to an upsurge in virus development." https://lnkd.in/g5hUBjg View in LinkedIn

VIRAL EVOLUTION. "Viruses often rely on subtle facets of machine architectures and operating systems. The march of progress in computer technology may literally overnight obliterate entire viral species, as the computational environment in which a virus thrives is either junked or changed to the point where the virus is dysfunctional." https://lnkd.in/g5hUBjg View in LinkedIn

CROSSING SPECIES BARRIERS. "Finally, it is not impossible for a viral species to cross computing platform barriers. A programmer may adapt a pre-existing virus for a new environment.” https://lnkd.in/g5hUBjg View in LinkedIn

PERSISTENT ADAPTATION. "Thompson has already described a virus using the AT&T C compiler as a host that can infect other C compilers and persist across platforms, software upgrades and changes of operating system." https://lnkd.in/g5hUBjg View in LinkedIn

SELF-MODIFYING CODE MUTATIONS. "If the program were to alter its code and then hit this altered code multiple times, it’s possible that the resulting instruction would be different each time.” https://lnkd.in/dScXnfT View in LinkedIn

TRIAL AND ERROR MUTATIONS. "I build a loop through some maximum mutations, pick a random position. Check the syntax and bail if invalid if not I then test the output for the expected result. The idea is the function returns something like “2” but you want it to return “4” and the mutations will continue until it finds the expected value." https://lnkd.in/e2GhRte View in LinkedIn

AUTOSCRIPTING SELF-MODIFYING. "Theoretically, there’s no reason we couldn’t create a Zajal program which would continue to mutate over a very long period, altering its own instructions as it runs and developing new behaviors." https://lnkd.in/dScXnfT View in LinkedIn