Mastering Reverse Engineering

Exploits and compromised websites

Exploits are also categorized under malware. Exploits are crafted to compromise specific vulnerabilities of software or network services. These are usually in the form of binary data. Exploits take advantage of vulnerability, thereby causing the target software or service to behave in such a manner that the attacker intends it should behave. Usually, the attacker intends to gain control over the target system or simply take it down.

Once an attacker identifies vulnerabilities on its target, an exploit is crafted containing code that would download malware that can give the attacker more access. This concept was used to develop exploit kits. Exploit kits are a set of known vulnerability scanners and known ...