Dissecting the Dark Web: Reverse Engineering the Tools of the Underground Economy

By Lindsay Kaye

A technical exploration of the malicious software bought and sold on the dark web, where bad actors offer malware-as-a-service (MaaS) to the highest bidders.

Step into the world of malware-as-a-service (MaaS) in this exploration of the tools and techniques used by threat actors in what is called the "underground economy."

Each chapter of Reversing the Dark Web covers a category of malicious tool regularly bought and sold on the dark web, surveys actual ads for these products to gain details about criminal operations, and walks through the reverse engineering of common malware samples to understand their inner workings.

Through real-world case studies and exercises, you'll learn about malware types such as stealers, loaders, botnets, ransomware, and post-exploitation toolkits, as well as the many tools threat actors use to make their attacks successful, such as crypters, obfuscation, and living off the land.

Makes use of open-source reverse-engineering tools for Windows, such as Ghidra and x64dbg

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1718504608
• ISBN13: 9781718504608
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: No Starch Press
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.0" x 9.2"