It irks me that articles like this (and the originals it is based on) claim to creating tiny ELF files when they are, in fact, just tricking a particular version of the Linux kernel into loading non-ELF binaries that claim to be valid. It's klever and all, but it's not doing what's claimed.

There are many OS kernels out there that use the ELF format for executable binaries. Many of them are not one particular Linux kernel. The fact that there is a series of articles based on the changing Linux kernel no longer accepting the old "tiny ELF" files is important.

I'll give kudos to the authors of these articles because they're doing something clever and fun. I just feel the urge to clarify to the internet that they're poking at exploits in a Linux kernel loader by offering it non-standard binary files and not creating tiny ELF files at all.