Heavy Wizardry 101: Shellcodes, Backdoors, Droppers, and Worms

By David Martínez Oliveira

Your spellbook for code close to the metal.

In hacker circles, heavy wizardry means code that trades on intimate knowledge of a system--the kind that speaks its private dialects and bends its rules. Heavy Wizardry 101 teaches you to write it. You'll build shellcode, backdoors, droppers, and worms from scratch, working at the instruction level where magic happens.

Every project is implemented for four architectures: x86_64, ARM, MIPS, and RISC-V. You'll write the same program four times, seeing exactly what stays constant and what changes. Each chapter starts with architecture fundamentals, such as memory layout, calling conventions, and stack mechanics, then walks through complete working implementations on Linux in safe, contained environments.

Learn to:
Write position-independent shellcode and programs that execute in constrained memory spacesImplement TCP reverse shells that bypass basic network restrictionsBuild executable droppers that embed and deploy payloads without detectionCreate self-replicating worms that propagate across networked systemsWrite basic port scanners to discover services in a networkPort low-level code between architectures by understanding instruction-level differences
Whether you're a penetration tester who wants to stop depending on Metasploit, a security researcher analyzing malware, or a systems programmer who needs to understand how computers work, this book gives you the skills to build and reason about code at the lowest level.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 171850442X
• ISBN13: 9781718504424
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: No Starch Press
• Length: 464 Pages