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Les virus informatiques vs Reversing: 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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4/52009

Les virus informatiques

Théorie, pratique et applications

Éric Filiol

The reference French academic treatment of computer virology — the theory, algorithms and practice of viruses and malicious code — by Éric Filiol, a former military cryptanalyst and one of France's leading virologists.

Intermediate

4/52005

Reversing

Secrets of Reverse Engineering

Eldad Eilam

The book that taught a generation how software actually looks once you strip away the source. Still the clearest on-ramp to thinking in assembly, even with dated tools.

Read this if

Students, researchers and serious malware analysts who want the formal, algorithmic foundations of viral code, not just tool tutorials. Filiol writes from deep cryptanalysis and military research experience.

People who want to genuinely understand reverse engineering from first principles rather than just running a disassembler and hoping. Self-taught practitioners filling in the gaps under their tooling.

Skip this if

Beginners or readers wanting a practical malware-analysis walkthrough; it's rigorous, theory-first and mathematical, closer to a graduate text than a lab guide.

Anyone who wants a modern, hands-on lab course. Skip this if you expect Ghidra walkthroughs or current malware samples; the toolchain here is OllyDbg and IDA-era and the OS examples are Windows XP.

Key takeaways

The canonical French-language text on the theory of computer viruses, by a recognised authority.
Theory- and algorithm-first: formal models of self-reproduction, detection complexity, and viral techniques.
Best read after a practical malware book — it explains why the techniques work, not how to click through a sandbox.

Reverse engineering is a disciplined reading skill, not magic; the fundamentals of how compilers, stacks, and calling conventions work outlast any tool.
The most durable part of the book is the bridge from high-level constructs to their assembly fingerprints, which you will recognize for the rest of your career.
The Windows-internals, copy-protection, and anti-reversing material is a snapshot of 2005 and should be treated as historical context, not current practice.

How they compare

Les virus informatiques and Reversing are both rated 4/5 in our catalog. Pick by topic preference and reading style rather than by rating.

Les virus informatiques is pitched at advanced level. Reversing is pitched at intermediate level. Read the easier one first if you're not yet comfortable with the topic.

Les virus informatiques and Reversing both cover Reverse Engineering, Foundations, so reading them in sequence reinforces the same material from different angles.

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