Detection and elimination of macro viruses

A method for detecting the presence of publicly identified and publicly unidentified macro viruses within a digital computer, said method comprising the steps of:

• associating an application program with said digital computer;
• associating a global environment with said application program;
• causing said application program to generate at least one local document;
• emulating the execution of macros contained within said global environment and said local document(s);
• and
• applying at least one preselected decision criterion to results of said emulating step to declare when a publicly identified macro virus is deemed to be present and to declare when a publicly unidentified macro virus is deemed to be present.

A method for detecting the presence of macro viruses within a digital computer, said method comprising the steps of:

• associating an application program with said digital computer;
• associating a global environment with said application program;
• causing said application program to generate at least one local document;
• emulating the execution of macros contained within said global environment and said local document(s);
• and
• applying at least one preselected decision criterion to results of said emulating step to declare when a macro virus is deemed to be present;
• wherein a preselected decision criterion is the presence of a bidirectional macro that propagates, during the emulating step, from a local document to the global environment and from the global environment to a local document;
• and
• a preselected decision criterion is the presence of a macro having a same source name as any said bidirectional macro.

A method for detecting the presence of macro viruses within a digital computer, said method comprising the steps of:

• associating an application program with said digital computer;
• associating a global environment with said application program;
• causing said application program to generate at least one local document;
• emulating the execution of macros contained within said global environment and said local document(s);
• and
• applying at least one preselected decision criterion to results of said emulating step to declare when a macro virus is deemed to be present;
• wherein a preselected decision criterion is the presence of a bidirectional macro that propagates, during the emulating step, from a local document to the global environment and from the global environment to a local document;
• and
• a preselected decision criterion is the presence of a macro having a same destination name as any said bidirectional macro.