Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 10th Apr 2006 21:17 UTC
Virus researchers at Kaspersky Lab have found proof-of-concept code for a cross-platform virus capable of infecting both Windows and Linux systems. In an alert posted to Viruslist, Kaspersky said the sample virus has been given a dual name - Virus.Linux.Bi.a/ Virus.Win32.Bi.a - and highlighted the way attackers are targeting multiple platforms in malware attacks. "The virus doesn't have any practical application," the company said in the alert. "It's classic proof-of-concept code, written to show that it is possible to create a cross-platform virus."
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Member since:
2005-07-06
you do realize if you write something in assembler, its not OS specific, its hardware specific. So it doesn't make virus "cross-platform", just specific for the hardware it was programmed for. So with OSX using Intel, this proof-of-concept can "infect" Win32, OSX and Linux on i386.
That only goes as far as pure instructions. You have to take into account difference in file-layout, and difference in API and system calls. Attempted direct manipulation of hardware, by my knowledge, is intercepted by Linux and Windows kernels.