Dark Avenger

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Dark Avenger (also known as Eddie) was the pseudonym for a famous computer virus writer from Sofia, Bulgaria. Dark Avenger seemed to have a personal hatred for Vesselin Bontchev, a Bulgarian antivirus software writer. The feeling was apparently mutual. Once, he dedicated one of his viruses to Sarah Gordon.

The Dark Avenger originally coded a family of viruses, which contained the strings Eddie lives...somewhere in time, Diana P. and This program was written in the city of Sofia (C) 1988-89 Dark Avenger which is where he received his nicknames from. The Dark Avenger virus was the first one reported to have originated from Bulgaria.

The Dark Avenger is mostly famous for coding the most famous polymorphic engine ever, the Mutation Engine (MtE) (1988); MtE could be linked to the plain virus in order to generate polymorphic decryptors. He, however, did not invent polymorphism itself, since this had already been predicted by Fred Cohen, and later put into practice by Mark Washburn in his 1260 virus, in 1990.

It was suggested by some virus writers that the Dark Avenger personality was a social experiment and Gordon was the object of a study herself, while helping build the myth. Others have hypothesised that she was herself Dark Avenger. In reality, her work has been externally validated, and is recognized as the seminal scientific/academic work on the topic.

Some virus researchers have hinted, mostly online, that the man known as "Dark Avenger" is currently among the management of a certain company selling an internationally successful antivirus scanner, but no direct proof of such suggestions was ever offered. Previously, Vesselin Bontchev himself was once mistakenly thought to be the Dark Avenger by some, because a virus authored by Dark Avenger contained a reference to the virus researcher's name.

Some people think that "Dark Avenger" is Todor Todorov, some others that it is Vesselin Bontchev himself.

It is believed that he gained his knowledge through the use of the leading Eastern bloc PC, Pravetz 82 in high schools, an Apple II series clone, produced in the homonymous city of Pravetz, Bulgaria.

[edit] Trivia

It is possible that the Dark Avenger might have been a fan of heavy metal music. The string Eddie lives...somewhere in time, which the virus outputs, draws attention. Eddie the Head is the name of the mascot of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden. Additionally, Somewhere in Time is the name of the band's sixth album. Furthermore, the virus shares a name with a song by Manowar (also a heavy metal band), called Dark Avenger, from their debut album.