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I need to develop antivirus software for Windows. Where can I download viruses or virus-like programs to test it with?

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I gotta say, if you don't already know where to find virus samples, trying to write an antivirus program seems very premature. –  jball Sep 8 '10 at 16:41
Wishing you Good luck, but closevoting as too localized –  Gordon Sep 8 '10 at 16:42
@jball: It's quite literally a solution looking for a problem. –  David Sep 8 '10 at 16:42
@Shog9: Looks to me like it's a question on obtaining a test corpus for antivirus development. Sounds more like SO material than SU. –  Michael Myers Sep 8 '10 at 16:47
@mmyers: I donno... Obtaining Photoshop to draw a splash screen is technically dev-related as well, but practically speaking both are better suited for SU. –  Shog9 Sep 8 '10 at 16:53

2 Answers 2

The EICAR test file is a good start, as it is an example of a self modifying program -- something that malware usually does.

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Try one of the many fake antimalware programs out there. Some SO scrapers "featured" one recently, links are in meta stack overflow.

Possibly, make sure you try them in a virtual machine disconnected from the internet. ;)

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