🔷 Many forms 💻 Changing code

polymorphic

1 8.8

Software that changes its code to hide from antivirus

adjective
/ˌpɒlɪˈmɔrfɪk/

Specialized

: polimórfico

Researchers are studying polymorphic viruses that alter their characteristics to escape security measures.
polymorphic virus

Examples

Because polymorphic viruses' signatures change, they can evade traditional detection methods.
He's using a polymorphic engine to mutate the code.

Skyfall (2012)
Having numerous heroes and heroines, a rich variety of narrative strands, and a great many episodes that are not crucial to the central story of the capture of Jerusalem, Gerusalemme liberata is a polymorphic text.

Academic text (2003)
The malware could avoid detection by constantly changing its code, making it a polymorphic threat.

Synonyms

metamorphic

vspolymorphic

1 7.6

Changing into a very different form, like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly

changes repeatedly over time rather than a single marked transformation

polymorphous

vspolymorphic

Specialized

9.2

A species that has many different forms within one population

changes repeatedly within a single instance over time rather than vary across a population

How Evasive

polymorphic

Specialized

1 8.8

obfuscatory

Formal

1 9.3

metamorphic

1 7.6

static

45 3.8

Surface Forms

polymorphic positive

Morphology

polymorphic = polymorph (semi-transparent) = poly + morph + ic

The technical sense clearly uses the idea of 'many forms', but the evasion-of-detection meaning is specialized and not fully predictable for average learners.

Etymology

The word polymorphic comes from Greek parts poly- meaning 'many' and morph meaning 'form', so it means 'many-shaped'. That's why in computing a polymorphic program or malware keeps changing its code like a shapeshifter to hide from antivirus tools.