How hard is it to write a rootkit?

DEF CON Writing a successful Windows rootkit is easier than you would think. All you need is do is learn assembly and C/C++ programming, plus exploit development, reverse engineering, and Windows internals, and then find and abuse a buggy driver, and inject and install your rootkit, and bam.

What languages are rootkits written in?

Why are most rootkits written in C and not C++? – Quora. Rootkits, essentially, are just (shady) system drivers. Because most system drivers have to communicate with the operating system, which those OS routines are most likely to be written in C, so drivers are inevitably written in C as well.

What is Ld_preload rootkit?

LD_PRELOAD is a configurable environment variable that allows users to specify a shared library to be loaded into memory for programs before other shared libraries.

What is a rootkit driver?

A rootkit is a collection of modified system applications or kernel code that is used to create a backdoor to a system without being detected. A kernel rootkit is loaded as a driver or a kernel extension and usually takes advantage of call hooking.

How is a rootkit made?

Rootkits work using a simple concept called modification. In general, software is designed to make specific decisions based on very specific data. A rootkit locates and modifies the software so it makes incorrect decisions. There are many places where modifications can be made in software.

What are viruses coded in?

As for now, most viruses are written in C/C++. The reason behind viruses being written in such “low level languages” is the fact that these language have the ability to control memory and control some important system resources that other “higher level languages” can’t.

What’s Ld_preload and when is it used?

The LD_PRELOAD trick exploits functionality provided by the dynamic linker on Unix systems that allows you to tell the linker to bind symbols provided by a certain shared library before other libraries.

How does Ld_preload work?

LD_PRELOAD allows you to override symbols in any library by specifying your new function in a shared object. When you run LD_PRELOAD=/path/to/my/free.so /bin/mybinary , /path/to/my/free.so is loaded before any other library, including libc. When mybinary is executed, it uses your custom function for free .

What is rootkit example?

Some of these rootkits resemble device drivers or loadable modules, giving them unrestricted access to the target computer. These rootkits avoid detection by operating at the same security level as the OS. Examples include FU, Knark, Adore, Rkit and Da IOS.

How is a rootkit installed?

How do rootkits get installed? Unlike computer worms and viruses — but similar to Trojan malware — rootkit infections need help to get installed on your computer. Hackers bundle their rootkits with two partner programs — a dropper and a loader — that work together to install the rootkit.