METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REPLICATING AND ANALYZING WORM PROGRAMS

A system and a method are disclosed for dynamically analyzing software, some of whose potentially-important behaviors (such as worm-like behavior) may only be displayed when the software is executed in an environment where it has, or appears to have, access to a production network and/or to the global Internet. The software can be executed in a real or an emulated network environment that includes a monitoring component and an emulation component. The monitoring component serves to capture and/or record the behaviors displayed by the software and/or other components of the system, and the emulation component gives the software being analyzed the impression that it is executing with access to a production network and/or to the global Internet. The software being analyzed is effectively confined to the analysis network environment, and cannot in fact read information from, or alter any information on, any production network or the global Internet.