A system and a method are disclosed for dynamically analyzing software, some
of
whose potentially-important behaviors (such as worm-like behavior) may only be
displayed when the software is executed in an environment where it has, or appears
to have, access to a production network and/or to the global Internet. The software
can be executed in a real or an emulated network environment that includes a monitoring
component and an emulation component. The monitoring component serves to capture
and/or record the behaviors displayed by the software and/or other components of
the system, and the emulation component gives the software being analyzed the impression
that it is executing with access to a production network and/or to the global Internet.
The software being analyzed is effectively confined to the analysis network environment,
and cannot in fact read information from, or alter any information on, any production
network or the global Internet.