How attackers hide malicious code in a container application
Horse Trick
© images/293_123RF_154085458_Chess-Piece_cagkan_200dpi_for_articles.png
Malicious Trojan horse programs have been part of the IT landscape for decades. It is easier than you think to create an application with a secret purpose. We'll show you how.
At the end of the legendary Trojan war, the Greeks left an offering for the people of Troy – a giant statue of a horse. Marveling at the gift, the Trojans brought the horse within their walls, not realizing it contained a lethal payload: Greek soldiers who would open the gates and let the Greek armies in to destroy the city. In other words, the Trojan horse was not what it appeared to be.
In today's world, the term Trojan horse refers to a program that is not what it appears to be. A Trojan horse is a form of malware that appears to have a legitimate purpose but secretly performs some malicious function. Trojan horse programs are sometimes used to open a backdoor or harvest information for a remote attack. Some Trojan horse apps take the form of ordinary Linux utilities like ps or ls. Others might pass through links sent with email messages.
The increase in Linux's popularity means malicious actors are also paying more attention, and the spread of harmful software will likely keep apace. Creating malware is often considered a dark art that only criminal hackers and spies truly understand, but the purpose of this article is to show just how easy it is to embed malicious code within an application. Of course, I will not provide any actual malicious code for this experiment. The sample code is just a placeholder for additional commands that an attacker could hide within the container application.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
-
Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.
-
Fedora Linux 43 Beta Now Available for Testing
Fedora Linux 43 Beta ships with Gnome 49 and KDE Plasma 6.4 (and other goodies).
-
USB4 Maintainer Leaves Intel
Michael Jamet, one of the primary maintainers of USB4 and Thunderbolt drivers, has left Intel, leaving a gaping hole for the Linux community to deal with.
-
Budgie 10.9.3 Now Available
The latest version of this elegant and configurable Linux desktop aligns with changes in Gnome 49.
-
KDE Linux Alpha Available for Daring Users
It's official, KDE Linux has arrived, but it's not quite ready for prime time.
-
AMD Initiates Graphics Driver Updates for Linux Kernel 6.18
This new AMD update focuses on power management, display handling, and hardware support for Radeon GPUs.
-
AerynOS Alpha Release Available
With a choice of several desktop environments, AerynOS 2025.08 is almost ready to be your next operating system.
-
AUR Repository Still Under DDoS Attack
Arch User Repository continues to be under a DDoS attack that has been going on for more than two weeks.
-
RingReaper Malware Poses Danger to Linux Systems
A new kind of malware exploits modern Linux kernels for I/O operations.