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is it illegal to write a virus?
| I think I'm gonna stop using this board now.
| ^suit yourself
| Arrest that virus for replicating!
| its only iilegal if its spreading without permission from the users side
| A virus doesn't necessarily replicate, a work replicates. If designed as a penetration testing or red teaming tool, it isn't illegal, for example see PowerShell Empire. Remote access tool, not necessarily malicious but can be abused easily. Same for meterpreter with msfvenom. If you code viruses and let's say do so for educational purposes such as learning to reverse engineering malware, I think you will be good. If you develop a virus or worm and release it or sell it = illegal.
| > If you code viruses and let's say do so for educational purposes
yea that's what i'm thinking, cause i saw some github repo hosting an exploit for anyone to see and abuse. sure, OS maker will be wary and patch their stuff but i still don't see the logic in that
| >>157679
That's called reasonable disclosure, typically researchers give vendors 90 days to release a patch, then they release exploit code as a proof of concept in order to add to their published works, get their name out there, and pressure vendors to release a patch and clients or consumers to patch asap. Many people sell exploit code to companies like zerodium or governments and can make hundreds of thousands of dollars if they don't tell vendors about the vulnerability.
| There are no „viruses“. Just lazy admins and developers who leave security holes that want to be explored and exploitet by free people with more skill.
Also, there is the osi layer 8 Issue, that no admin/developer can solve except disable all input and output of the device for the user - which is almost what Apple does. Also stock-android and windos goes in that direction. In the end, computers will end up as TVs and direct their users what to do.
| Highly depends on the country you live in
| Educational purposes and penetration testing? So far I don't think it's illegal to write a virus, yet, the problem is when you use that virus you made to steal information and commit a «cybercrime»; is like making a gun: the problem is not making a gun, the problem is when you use it to harm others.
| Only if you do it with malicious intent I think. IANAL tho.
| Any virus which is used for stealing info/making any bad things, such as deleting files, crashing system, making work with machine unavailable is crime
| Its not illegal to write a virus, its just illegal to distribute it, infect computers with it or give it to somebody who wants to infect computers with it.
| I'm sure that law is effective in stopping the NSA from making wormable exploits that end up getting published and in turn being used indiscriminately against all vulnerable targets.
Oh wait ...
| >>160376
Absolutely right, you can make a virus but only for looking out how it works and how to use it.
| The big IT companies sell viruses legally. Proprietary software is usually equipped with virus alike functionalities by default.
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| if you think about it, a virus is just a program that replicates itself. it can be achieved with several lines of code, but commiting a crime cant be that easy..
right?