Software is often described according to a front-end and back-end dichotomy, with interaction happening in the former and the latter being the domain of development and maintenance. My in-depth research on and through the supposedly obsolete and highly detested programming language COBOL, goes beyond this dichotomy and reveals a back-back-end of software, as a site that makes dichotomies such as front-end and back-end possible in the first place. The persistence of COBOL as a legacy system within the digital services of the Global North is shown to be widespread, all the while these systems are maintained by workforces located in the Global South. With a focus on India, the article discusses the paradoxical situation of supposedly developed countries being dependent on labour in emerging and developing countries, in order for infrastructures to keep seeming developed. This involves processes of outsourcing and software wrapping that are described in the article along with the educational structures that are set in place for the maintenance to take place. What Manuel Castells’ once famously dubbed the space of flows of the global network society, is here discussed as having produced a ‘space of flaws’ in which a hidden workforce makes sure that the global flows keep flowing. Beyond the context of software development, I have engaged with COBOL intersectionally, through fieldwork and practice-based art and design methodologies, mapping the extent of which this language, rather than being obsolete, occupies an ‘undead’ position within planetary information networks. The article suggests that the existence of such undead legacy systems goes against ideas of linear technological development as a natural force as well as linear socio-economic development on a whole. The temporal and spatial regimes that work to hide asymmetries of development are discussed and ultimately, I suggest that, contrary to this obfuscation, we need analytical and practical approaches that actively engage these asymmetries.