i need virus signatures.Where can i get them?

Question

I am planning to make a free antivirus .

Answer 1

The fact that you are asking such a question means that you do not have the qualification necessary for making a good anti-virus product. So, don't waste your time and that of other people and occupy yourself with something that you know how to do well.

Generally speaking, the developer of an anti-virus product does not "get" virus signatures from somewhere. Instead, they analyze carefully thousands of viruses and extract from them the data that would allow their product to detect these viruses reliably and without causing false positives.

The different anti-virus products work in different ways and the different producers have different preferences regarding how to detect viruses. Some pick the signatures from the replication code of the virus, others pick them from the part that transfers control to the original infected program. Personally, I am a big fan of exact identification. I use maps that specify where are the non-modifiable areas in the virus code and a set of checksums for these areas.

Since you obviously have no clue how anti-virus programs are made, a first step could be to look at ClamAV. Please have in mind that its producers are rather clueless too, and that it is one of the *worst* anti-virus products around. However, it is free and OpenSource - which means that you can inspect the source and see how the program works. Just remember that it uses approaches that have become obsolete in the mainstream anti-virus industry more than a decade ago. But anything more advanced would require years of active research in the field and is clearly above you at this stage.

Answer 2

You have to create your own I believe...if you use another company's signatures, you can and probably will get sued. Good luck with that, if it's good I will definitely use it :-)