Week 4: Execution

How malicious code gets from sitting on disk to actually running, and the environments and triggers that make it happen

17 August 2027

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Code that never runs is not malware, only a file. This lecture covers how malicious software gets itself executed, and the eternal problem beneath every other technique it depends on: how do I get this thing to actually start?

Outline#

• how malicious software gets code to run
• execution environments
• triggers and user interaction
• the eternal problem of “how do I get this thing to actually start?”