Glossary
ELF Format
Executable and Linkable Format — the standard binary file format on Linux and most Unix-like systems for executables, shared libraries, and object files.
The ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) is the standard binary container on Linux, Android, and most Unix-like operating systems. An ELF file begins with a 16-byte magic header (\x7fELF) followed by class (32/64-bit), endianness, OS/ABI, and entry-point fields. It contains a program header table (describing loadable segments for the OS) and a section header table (describing sections like .text, .data, .bss, and the symbol table for tools). The entry point field points to the first instruction executed after the dynamic linker runs. Tools like readelf and objdump parse ELF metadata during static analysis.