Chapter 4. Classification of Infection Strategies

“ All art is an imitation of nature.”

—Seneca

In this chapter, you will learn about common computer virus infection techniques that target various file formats and system areas.

4.1 Boot Viruses

The first known successful computer viruses were boot sector viruses. In 1986 two Pakistani brothers, on the IBM PC, created the first such virus—called Brain.

Today the boot infection technique is rarely used. However, you should become familiar with boot viruses because they can infect a computer regardless of the actual operating system installed on it.

Boot sector viruses take advantage of the boot process of personal computers (PCs). Because most computers do not contain an operating system (OS) ...

Get Art of Computer Virus Research and Defense, The now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.