The Shift from Reactive to Proactive Security
For three decades, the cybersecurity industry has been built on the premise of detection. Antivirus software compares files against databases of known malware signatures. Sandboxes execute suspicious files in isolated environments to observe their behavior. Machine learning models analyze file characteristics to identify anomalies. Each of these approaches shares a common assumption: that we can reliably distinguish malicious files from benign ones.
This assumption is increasingly untenable. Modern attackers employ sophisticated evasion techniques specifically designed to bypass detection mechanisms. Malware can detect when it's running in a sandbox and remain dormant. Polymorphic code changes its signature with each infection. Fileless attacks operate entirely in memory, leaving no artifacts for antivirus to scan. Zero-day exploits leverage vulnerabilities that no signature database contains.
The result is an arms race that defenders are structurally destined to lose. Detection systems must be perfect—they must identify every possible attack—while attackers need only find one technique that works. The asymmetry is inherent to the detection paradigm itself.
CDR eliminates this asymmetry by changing the question. Instead of asking "is this file malicious?" (which requires knowing every possible form malice could take), CDR asks "does this file contain only the elements it should?" This is a question with a definitive answer. File format specifications define exactly what components a valid file should contain. Anything else—whether it's a known exploit, an unknown zero-day, or a future attack that hasn't been invented yet—is removed during reconstruction.
