Systems, Kits

A rootkit is a set of programs designed to corrupt the legitimate control of an operating system by its operators. Usually, a rootkit will obscure its installation and attempt to prevent its removal through a subversion of standard system security. more...

Home
Bath & Body
Dietary Supplements,...
Hair Care
Hair Removal
Health Care
Makeup
Massage
Medical, Special Needs
Nail
Natural Therapies
Oral Care
Electric Toothbrushes
Other Oral Care Items
Systems, Kits
Toothbrushes
Toothpaste
Whitening
Skin Care
Vision Care

Techniques used to accomplish this can include concealing running processes, files or system data from the operating system. Rootkits have their origin in regular applications, but in recent years have been used increasingly by malware to help intruders maintain access to systems while avoiding detection. Rootkits exist for a variety of operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X , Linux and Solaris. Rootkits often modify parts of the operating system or install themselves as drivers or kernel modules.

History

The term rootkit or root kit originally referred to a maliciously modified set of administrative tools for a Unix-like operating system. If an intruder could replace the standard administrative tools on a system with a rootkit, the modified tools would give the intruder administrative control over the system while concealing his activities from the legitimate system administrator. The earliest known rootkit was written ca. 1990 by Lane Davis and Riley Dake for SunOS 4.1.1.

Rootkits were so named because they allowed an intruder to become a root user (system administrator) of a Unix system. Since then, similar software has appeared on other operating systems, and the term rootkit has been to broadened to include any software that surreptitiously alters an operating system, even one such as Windows that does not have a root user per se.

Rootkits entered the spotlight in 2005, when Sony BMG caused a scandal by including self-installing rootkit software on music CDs that altered the Windows OS to enforce copy protection. This scandal heightened public awareness of corporate-sponsored malware.

Common use

A rootkit can take full control of a system. A rootkit's purpose is typically to hide files, network connections, memory addresses, or registry entries from other programs used by system administrators to detect intended or unintended special privilege accesses to the computer resources. However, a rootkit may be incorporated with other files which have other purposes. It is important to note that while the utilities bundled with the rootkit may be malicious in intent, a rootkit is essentially a technology; it may be used for both productive and destructive purposes.

A rootkit is often used to hide utilities. These are often used to abuse a compromised system, and often include so-called "backdoors" to help the attacker subsequently access the system more easily. For example, the rootkit may hide an application that spawns a shell when the attacker connects to a particular network port on the system. Kernel rootkits may include similar functionality. A backdoor may also allow processes started by a non-privileged user to execute functions normally reserved for the superuser. All sorts of other tools useful for abuse can be hidden using rootkits. This includes tools for further attacks against computer systems which the compromised system communicates with, such as sniffers and keyloggers. A possible abuse is to use a compromised computer as a staging ground for further abuse (see zombie computer). This is often done to make the abuse appear to originate from the compromised system or network instead of the attacker. Tools for this can include denial-of-service attack tools, tools to relay chat sessions, and e-mail spam attacks. A major use for rootkits is allowing the programmer of the rootkit to see and access user names and log-in information for sites that require them. The programmer of the rootkit can store unique sets of log-in information from many different computers. This makes the rootkits extremely hazardous, as it allows trojans to access this personal information while the rootkit covers it up.

Read more at Wikipedia.org