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A kernel mode rootkit can also hook the System Service Descriptor Table (SSDT), or modify the gates between user mode and kernel mode, in order to cloak itself. [4] Similarly for the Linux operating system, a rootkit can modify the system call table to subvert kernel functionality.
Detecting rootkits is separated into many complex layers that include integrity checking and behavioral detection. By checking the CPU usage, ongoing and outgoing network traffic, or the signatures of drivers, simple anti-virus tools can detect common rootkits. However, this is not the case with a kernel type rootkit.
In November 2010, the press reported that the rootkit had evolved to the point that it was bypassing the mandatory kernel-mode driver signing requirement of 64-bit editions of Windows 7. It did this by subverting the master boot record, [8] which made it particularly resistant on all systems to detection and removal by anti-virus software.
For both reasons, hooking SSDT calls is often used as a technique in both Windows kernel mode rootkits and antivirus software. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] In 2010, many computer security products which relied on hooking SSDT calls were shown to be vulnerable to exploits using race conditions to attack the products' security checks.
A host operating system kernel could use instructions with full privilege access (kernel mode), whereas applications running on the guest OS in a virtual machine or container could use the lowest level of privileges in user mode. The virtual machine and guest OS kernel could themselves use an intermediate level of instruction privilege to ...
However, such assertions have been disputed by others who claim that it would be possible to detect the presence of a hypervisor-based rootkit. [19] In 2009, researchers from Microsoft and North Carolina State University demonstrated a hypervisor-layer anti-rootkit called Hooksafe that can provide generic protection against kernel-mode rootkits ...
Rootkits are notoriously used by the black hat hacking community. A rootkit allows an attacker to subvert a compromised system. This subversion can take place at the application level, as is the case for the early rootkits that replaced a set of common administrative tools, but can be more dangerous when it occurs at the kernel level.
The malware has both user mode and kernel mode rootkit ability under Windows, [67] and its device drivers have been digitally signed with the private keys of two public key certificates that were stolen from separate well-known companies, JMicron and Realtek, both located at Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan.