W indows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is one of the best recent additions to the Windows OS as it adds everyone’s favourite kernel to Windows. In this very issue we look at WSL 2.0, which is built into Windows and enables you to run Linux executables natively in Windows 10 and Windows 11, with WSL 2.0 including the Linux kernel.
It’s handy for devs working on Linux projects but using a Windows PC, for example, and it’s certainly been one of the more popular aspects of Microsoft’s embrace of open source. However, security researcher Black Lotus Labs has discovered malware that uses WSL to avoid being detected by antivirus tools. In a blog post outlining their findings (read it at https://bit.ly/lxf282wsl), the researchers reveal they have “recently identified several malicious files that were written primarily in Python and compiled in the Linux binary format ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) for the Debian operating system.”