In the last few years, the growing popularity of smart phones has made them an attractive target to hackers and malware writers. One of possible communication channels for the penetration of mobile malware is the Bluetooth interface. In this paper, a new analytical modeling methodology for malware propagation using three-dimensional cellular automata and based on the epidemic theory has been presented and as a case study the propagation of Bluetooth worm has been discussed. | International Journal of Computer Networks and Communications Security VOL. 3, NO. 3, MARCH 2015, 63–73 Available online at: E-ISSN 2308-9830 (Online) / ISSN 2410-0595 (Print) MP-CA: A Malware Propagation Modeling Methodology Based on Cellular Automata ZAHRA BAKHSHI1, MINA ZOLFY LIGHVAN2 and REZA MOSTAFAVI33 1, 2, 3 Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran E-mail: , 2mzolfy@, ABSTRACT The variety of security threats caused by malwares has turned their dispersion into a potential danger. Malware propagation modeling is a facility that allows the researchers to predict the side effects of a new threat and understand the behavior of the modeled malware. On the other hand, due to the high cost and diversity of existing networks and the capability of those networks to be infected by such malwares, behavioral modeling of malware becomes a challengeable issue in recent works. In the last few years, the growing popularity of smart phones has made them an attractive target to hackers and malware writers. One of possible communication channels for the penetration of mobile malware is the Bluetooth interface. In this paper, a new analytical modeling methodology for malware propagation using three-dimensional cellular automata and based on the epidemic theory has been presented and as a case study the propagation of Bluetooth worm has been discussed. Keywords: Malware, Propagation, Modeling, Cellular Automata, Bluetooth. 1 INTRODUCTION A Malware is a broad term for different kinds of malicious programs including worms, spyware, viruses, and adware [1]. A program is known as malware if it installs itself without awareness and user satisfaction. The goal and infection type of malwares identifies their type [2]. Spyware is a program that gathers user’s information without his authorization and sends them to other places. Adware is another type .
