Learning Linux Binary Analysis

Chapter 4. ELF Virus Technology – Linux/Unix Viruses

The art of virus writing has been around for several decades now. In fact, it goes all the way back to the Elk Cloner Apple virus that was successfully launched in the wild in 1981 through a floppy disk video game. Since the mid '80s and through the '90s, there have been various secret groups and hackers who have used their arcane knowledge to design, release, and publish viruses in virus and hacker e-zines (see http://vxheaven.org/lib/static/vdat/ezines1.htm).

The art of virus writing is usually of great inspiration to hackers and underground technical enthusiasts, not because of the destruction that they are capable of, but rather the challenge in designing them and the unconventional coding ...