Where do I get a list of all known viruses signatures?

Question

I have written some antivirus software in Python, but am unable to find virus signatures. The software works by dumping each file on the hard disk to hex, thus getting the hex signature. Where do i get signatures for all the known viruses?

Solution 1

There's Clamav, the open source GPL anti-virus. You can read its source code to see how it implements heuristics and other stuff. It's written in C, though.

You can download a virus database there as well. They're free and updated frequently.

Solution 2

I doubt such a list exists, anti-virus companies spend a lot of time/money building their databases and it would seem unlikely that any of them would release the data for free.

Also, as Lasse says, not all viruses have a static signature. The "good" ones (and I would assume that means the majority of viruses from this century) would all be self-mutating.

Solution 3

There is a database of malware signatures in CSV format
on comodo.com you can download them from their site
Download Virus signature database

That is a quite large file(about 432MB) so it should contain a lot of signatures.

Comments

[Zac Brown]

Ok, thanks for the responses. I am willing to re write the software to make it "good" and not pointless. I just am not sure I know how. I need the software to be written in python. How would I go about making it good?

[Michael Petrotta]

@Zachary: Why do you want to write anti-virus software? What do you want to do that your competitors (McAfee, Symantec, AVG, Microsoft, etc) aren't doing, or aren't doing well?

[Zac Brown]

I want to provide top quality antivirus software, that update automatically at a reasonable price. I am also learning along the way.

[jweyrich]

@codeka no, all antivirus release this information. They just aren't in a readable form to any other software. But one could certainly reverse engineer it (disregarding the legal part).

[Michael Petrotta]

@Zachary: good luck to you, and I hope you learn something. Note that Microsoft (to pick the AV vendor that I use) publishes high-quality AV software that updates automatically and frequently, for free (for most Windows SKUs). I don't mean to discourage you, but I hope you comprehend your market - it's saturated, and very difficult to develop for.

[Zac Brown]

OK, then. Do you have any ideas for useful software that is not in a saturated market? I am open to ideas. Just trying to use my skills for good stuff.

[Dean Harding]

@jweyrich: Of course they "release" it (otherwise the software wouldn't be able to work) but you can't just "disregard" the legality of reverse engineering the database, particularly when you want to release whatever software you develop from that action.

[Michael Petrotta]

@Zachary - ok, write some software that watches a webcam, and translates hand gestures into software actions (pans, zooms, movements). Sell it as a library for games, image processing apps, etc.

[jweyrich]

Well-minded! A great start point. +1

[Zac Brown]

Michael Petrotta ; I like that idea? Can you point me in the right direction for that?

[leumasme]

I cant find a download in csv format on that site, only their own .cav file format