There are several methods which antivirus software can use to identify malware.
Signature based detection is the most common method. To identify viruses and other malware, antivirus software compares the contents of a file to a dictionary of virus signatures. Because viruses can embed themselves in existing files, the entire file is searched, not just as a whole, but also in pieces.
Heuristic-based detection, like malicious activity detection, can be used to identify unknown viruses.
File emulation is another heuristic approach. File emulation involves executing a program in a virtual environment and logging what actions the program performs.
Depending on the actions logged, the antivirus software can determine if the program is malicious or not and then carry out the appropriate disinfection actions.
