HASH-BASED SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETECTING, PREVENTING, AND TRACING NETWORK WORMS AND VIRUSES

A system (126-129) detects transmission of potentially malicious packets. The system (126-129) receives packets and generates hash values corresponding to each of the packets. The system (126-129) may then compare the generated hash values to hash values corresponding to prior packets. The system (126-129) determines that one of the packets is a potentially malicious packet when the generated hash value corresponding to the one packet matches one of the hash values corresponding to one of the prior packets and the one prior packet was received within a predetermined amount of time of the one packet. The system (126-129) may also facilitate the tracing of the path taken by a potentially malicious packet. In this case, the system (126-129) may receive a message that identifies a potentially malicious packet, generate hash values from the potentially malicious packet, and determine whether one or more of the generated hash values match hash values corresponding to previously-received packets. The system (126-129) may then identify the potentially malicious packet as one of the previously-received packets when one or more of the generated hash values match the hash value corresponding to the one previously-received packet.