Patent ID: 7814550

Claim:
A system to emulate a worm, comprising: a first host that provides a test description, wherein said test description defines one or more emulated worms, and propagation characteristics of said emulated worms, said test description being a non-executable specification; one or more participating hosts in a network that have previously agreed to participate in a test of said emulated worms, and that receive said test description, wherein said participating hosts generate said emulated worms according to said test description, said participating hosts having been pre-loaded with client software required to participate in said test; and one or more virtual vulnerable services in each of said participating hosts that operate according to said client software during said test to thereby generate and propagate messages over said network according to said test description, said virtual vulnerable services representing services in said participating hosts affected by said emulated worms, said messages transmitted by said emulated worms and acting to propagate said emulated worms to other participating hosts according to said test description, such that operation of said participating hosts during said test in response to said emulated worms is defined according to said test description, wherein operation of a non-participating host would not be defined by said test description when said non-participating host is not executing said client software upon receipt of messages from said emulated worms.