Security Terms
Packer
A program that compresses, or reduces, the size of a program's code, often by re-coding it to a smaller size. Packers are used to minimize a program's download times and save storage space. Malicious packers are those commonly used to pack malware.A program which has been compressed by a packer must be decompressed to its original state before it can be executed. This may be a security risk if the packed program happens to be malware. To mitigate this risk, most virus scanners will identify the packer used to compress a file and if the packer is malicious, the file is flagged.
Virus writers commonly use a variety of packing techniques to prevent virus scanners from identifying a malicious file, including using multiple packers to compress the file.
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