Spyware & Keyloggers Vs. Trojans

[Norman Stockdale]

In what way do spyware and keylog programs differ from Trojans?

In discussions (for example, PC Magazine's March 2, 2004 issue on Spyware) these topics are listed separately; yet, I suspect that spyware and keyloggers are subsets of Trojans. Am I correct?

Another question: are worms a subset of viruses? I have requested an answer to this question from ESET's NOD32 Info, but have not received a reply. NOD32 does intercept some worms, but I don't know if is a prime program for removing this class of malware.

TDS-3, apparently intercepts some worms (for example, SOBIG and MS BLASTER), but I see no evidence that it is promoted as a prime worm remover.

Finally, into what category do Tracking Cookies fall? Spyware Blaster, among other things, does take care of these Cookies.

I also have Spybot, but hoped that now that I have TDS-3, that it would take care of spyware. Does it?



Regards,
NormanS

[gkweb]

A spyware doesn't log your keys nor is a trojan which let someone to come into your comp, as soon as a "spyware" start to use those kind of feature, it become a trojan, but i have never seen that.

A spyware is from start created to advertise people, and a trojan (generally) to allow a malicious people to breach your security.
You won't be hacked having spywares, you can be with trojans.

I'm sure Gavin will have more information for you.

[Gavin - DiamondCS]

There are now MANY classes of trojans (which are classes of malware) and its hard to classify some things. The most prevalent these days would be Adware, Trojan Proxies, RATs (many types)..

Spyware or Adware is the very least of your problems. Spyware was called this because modules in a program would record a users browsing habits - what pages they visit mostly, and send it back to a server for recording. Statistics based on this can mean $$$ for advertising deals.

Keyloggers generally only log keys, although some have more advanced features. A keylogger will then obviously store and almost always SEND the keylog file to some predetermined address or maybe an FTP server.

A trojan in classic terms is usually a RAT, a Client/Server which enables anywhere from limited to full remote access to a machine. File and registry control, screencapture, mouse control are the most common features. A trojan could also be as simple as deleting all files in C:\Windows. Trojans (real trojans) are the biggest danger, these include Trojan Proxies and spam relays, IRC controlled RAT's, Destructive trojans, AV/Firewall killers, rootkits, and Trojan Downloaders. Many adware downloaders are being called Trojan Downloaders, but these are far less dangerous than the original term "Webdownloader". TDS still detects most webdownloaders as "Webdownloader" unless little information is known about them and they are already known by antiviruses.