A system and method for executing computer virus definitions containing
general purpose programming language extensions is described. One or more
virus definition records are stored in a computer virus data file. Each
virus definition record includes an identifier, a virus detection section
and an extension sentence. The identifier uniquely identifies a computer
virus. The virus detection section includes object code providing
operations to detect the identified computer virus within a computer
system. The extension sentence includes object code providing reusable
operations implemented in a general purpose computing language. For each
virus definition record, at least one of the object code of the virus
detection section and the extension sentence is interpreted.
