Me Code Write Good: The l33t Skillz of the Virus Writer

Overview

Viruses and worms pose some of the most formidable threats in the modern computer security landscape. With some virus writers on the bleeding edge of technology, making use of 0-day exploits and innovative techniques to circumvent system security features. However, for every Blaster, there's a worm that repeatedly attempts to infect the same machine. From exploitable vulnerabilities in their code to incomprehensible goofs there's no shortage of evidence that a large proportion of virus writers aren't quite as capable as they would like others to think. This paper takes a look at the legacy of these slightly less than expert level virus writers, and examines the threat they continue to pose.