// Comparison

Les virus informatiques : théorie, pratique et applications vs Practical Binary Analysis: Which Should You Read?

Two cybersecurity books on Reverse Engineering, compared honestly: who each is for, what each does best, and which to read first.

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5/52009

Les virus informatiques : théorie, pratique et applications

Éric Filiol

Éric Filiol's reference French-language treatment of computer virology. Formal theory, infection mechanisms, offensive and defensive applications, with academic rigor rare on the topic.

Advanced

5/52018

Practical Binary Analysis

Build Your Own Linux Tools for Binary Instrumentation, Analysis, and Disassembly

Dennis Andriesse

Dennis Andriesse on the binary toolchain you can actually script: ELF internals, dynamic taint analysis, symbolic execution and instrumentation with concrete code-along examples.

Read this if

French-reading security students, researchers, advanced malware analysts who want a formal treatment — French-language literature on the topic is thin.

Reverse engineers ready to stop being IDA clickers and start being programmers who happen to RE. Andriesse covers DBI (Pin), taint analysis (Triton), and symbolic execution (angr) at exactly the level a practitioner needs to weaponize them.

Skip this if

Readers looking for a tooling manual or introduction. Filiol writes dense; algorithmic and systems fundamentals are required.

RE beginners who haven't yet finished Practical Reverse Engineering, or readers without C and Python comfort. The book assumes you can already disassemble; the value is in the automation layer.

Key takeaways

Prix Roberval 2005 (higher-education category) — one of the few French cyber books awarded at that level.
Filiol is a former military cryptanalyst and ran ESAT then ESIEA's virology lab; academic sourcing is visible chapter by chapter.
The only French-language book that treats computer virology with university-textbook rigor.

Modern RE is automated RE; the book is the bridge between hand-driven analysis and the toolchain that scales to large binaries.
Symbolic execution is finally accessible to working RE engineers thanks to angr, and Andriesse's framing is what makes it click for most practitioners.
Custom DBI passes solve a category of problems that no GUI tool can; the book teaches you when to reach for them and how to write them.

How they compare

Les virus informatiques : théorie, pratique et applications and Practical Binary Analysis are both rated 5/5 in our catalog. Pick by topic preference and reading style rather than by rating.

Both books target advanced-level readers, so the choice is about topic, not difficulty.

Les virus informatiques : théorie, pratique et applications and Practical Binary Analysis both cover Reverse Engineering, so reading them in sequence reinforces the same material from different angles.

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