Hi everyone,

After reading about a few of the anti virus scripts here, I wondered if anyone has made a non-lua virus scanner? As I'm sure most of you know, our places and models are saved in XML, making it very easy to parse in another program. You would also have the benefit of being able to update your program's definitions over the internet.

Does anyone have a project going in this nature?

It has been theorized that such a program could be created. However, none has yet been built. This would be a very valuable program though. I would suggest trying your hand at making one. Oh, and welcome to the forums!

Thanks frogy,

I had actually started such a program in VB.Net, I wonder if I still have it around... I would be more than happy to upload the sourcecode if someone else wants to take over with development.

My project is at this link: [url=mediafire.com/download.php?7l5i758g6ck339x]Download[/url] Sure enough, I coded it in VB.Net. I think you need Visual Studio 2008 or higher if you want to open it. At the point I left it, I think it can actually parse place and model files, but don't quote me on that. Along with crappy (or non-existent) comments, there it is.

tgp1994 wrote:

Thanks frogy,

I had actually started such a program in VB.Net, I wonder if I still have it around... I would be more than happy to upload the sourcecode if someone else wants to take over with development.

My project is at this link: [url=mediafire.com/download.php?7l5i758g6ck339x]Download[/url] Sure enough, I coded it in VB.Net. I think you need Visual Studio 2008 or higher if you want to open it. At the point I left it, I think it can actually parse place and model files, but don't quote me on that. Along with crappy (or non-existent) comments, there it is.

Okay! I might try to work on it sometime, although time is precious for me right now.

Yeah, same here. If I do find the time, I think I may start an actual project on Google code/SF or the likes.

tgp1994 wrote:

Hi everyone,

After reading about a few of the anti virus scripts here, I wondered if anyone has made a non-lua virus scanner? As I'm sure most of you know, our places and models are saved in XML, making it very easy to parse in another program. You would also have the benefit of being able to update your program's definitions over the internet.

Does anyone have a project going in this nature?

Well, you CAN look for viruses manually. Just follow these steps:

1.) Go to Roblox studio.
2.) Open the place that you believe is infected with a virus.
3.) Click File>Save As
4.) Save the file.
5.) Close Studio.
6.) Open up Notepad++
7.) Click File>Open
8.) Type in the Name of the Roblox place file.
9.) Open it.
10.) Press Ctrl+F
11.) Type in what you are looking for (keywords like: Virus, OMGHAX, HAX, OMG, etc.)
12.) Find the infected item/script/asset's parent (besides Workspace, camera, toolbox, StarterGUI, etc. (if the parent is one of the locked features, just delete the text between the item's html tags)) and remove the text between the html tags.
13.) Save the file.
14.) Open it up in Studio and make sure it is fixed. If anything went wrong, you most likely will have to start the process over as long as you didn't save the game to Roblox after you made the changes.
15.) If it didn't work, start over from step one.

That's actually how I started removing viruses (and I wish I could go to every place maker that doesn't know how to do that, and show them what you posted). But I realized, hey, since it's an XML file, surely it must be a breeze to parse and edit! Sure enough.

tgp1994 wrote:

That's actually how I started removing viruses (and I wish I could go to every place maker that doesn't know how to do that, and show them what you posted). But I realized, hey, since it's an XML file, surely it must be a breeze to parse and edit! Sure enough.

I just started exploring the XML world, about 4-6 months ago. I also am learning about .html, etc. I also look for RobloxLocked functions in the .XML files. That way, you can change it to false, insert something, change it to true again, and save.

im theorizing that "smart" scanners are actually around now. but just in case...

basically, the viruses and antiviruses are a giant strategy game in the real world. the basic function of a virus is to spread and evade detection from antiviruses, right (I'm talking about the real world)? the basic function of an antivirus is to remove viruses. so, to create an antivirus, one would have to feed all the possible "signatures" that virus code could have into an antivirus signature blacklist. so to block out a nulled parent,

Code:

local blacklist = {
      "script.Parent = null",
      "script.Parent= null",
      "script.Parent =null"
      }

of course, there are other ways of doing this, and one would not have to make an actual list.
and of course, there are many more signatures of a script virtually nulling its parent

Although real world roblox shouldn't be that bad. It will be easier to think outside the LUA-box, and in more (practical and functional?) diverse languages. ROBLOX viruses are, themselves, absolutely harmless when it comes down looking at the place file offline.

the problem isn't practicality... or functionality (and what i think you're trying to mean instead is flexibility). the problem is accessibility. for many people do not want to download just incase you advertise, for example, a program that wipes hard drives. no, players who play ROBLOX will feel safer in their ROBLOX-box. that is why you have to make a LUA antivirus. it is also easier to advertise and other LUA coders can check whether or not you have produced a real antivirus

Supernapalm wrote:

...many people do not want to download just incase you advertise, for example, a program that wipes hard drives. no, players who play ROBLOX will feel safer in their ROBLOX-box.

You do raise very good points, Supernapalm. It's hard to trust a closed source program to do good, especially when the author is not reputable.

To counter that however, I'd like to highlight two things which come in handy: The trust system, and open source. You're right, LUA code is really open source whether you want it to be or not. However, as mentioned earlier, if I were to take up this program again, I would host it on a site (such as Google code or Sourceforge), both which encourage (or require) some sort of open source license to compliment the hosted program. That way, if someone was weary of running a compiled version of the program they downloaded, they could always compile it themselves, and achieve the same sort of piece of mind that you get reviewing LUA code before you run it. Trust can be established (or removed) simply by reviews on the program or programmer. If the programmer tries anything funny, down goes their reputation. I'll address the roblox-box issue next:

Supernapalm wrote:

the problem isn't practicality... or functionality (and what i think you're trying to mean instead is flexibility). the problem is accessibility.

Well, on the contrary, I do believe that functionality is an issue. In roblox's LUA, you're limited to whatever the ROBLOX programmers allow you to do. In anything else the sky is really the limit. As mentioned before, the LUA language is choked in roblox by the fact that it's unable to communicate with the internet (at least since I last checked), therefor making it much more difficult to distribute updates, to the core program or definitions. By the definition of accessibility, I think other languages would excel compared to roblox's LUA.

This debate could really be compared to the mac or PC argument, however. Each platform has their pluses and minuses. I would like to explore the idea of using a language other than roblox's LUA for programming a virus scanner simply because it goes off the beaten path, and I'm much more comfortable with VB.Net and C# than I am with LUA.

Wow guys! This is just a personal choice thing. Use the language you like!

Exactly, and that was essentially what I was getting at in my final paragraph.

A well conducted speech and conclusion, however you CAN allow updates by virtually creating a master LUA antivirus script referencing a secondary, slave script via Model IDs. And, I agree that you should use the language you are most comfortable with - which is why I am not creating an antivirus in ROBLOX-LUA.