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SysInternals Releases RootkitRevealer

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the have-you-been-pwn3d-lately dept.

Brian writes "In the wake of news that Microsoft is developing prototype software to detect rootkits, SysInternals has released a free rootkit detection tool named RootkitRevealer for all Windows systems NT4+. RootkitRevealer works by "comparing the results of a system scan at the highest level with that at the lowest level," and detects every known rootkit at rootkit.com. They also report that it is impossible to know for sure that a given system is clean from within it, but that defeating their tool would require a level of sophistication not yet seen. You can download RootkitRevealer."

15 of 260 comments (clear)

  1. Strange... by bigtallmofo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Every time I try to go to www.sysinternals.com to find the new Rootkit removal application, my system shuts down automatically.

    Probably nothing to worry about.

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
    1. Re:Strange... by SpinJaunt · · Score: 5, Informative
      If you are using Windows XP SP2 or Windows 2003 SP1, you'll need to turn off DEP (Data Execution Prevention) by editing your BOOT.INI and have change from
      /noexecute=optin
      to
      /noexecute=AlwaysOff
      http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url= /library/en-us/ddtools/hh/ddtools/BootIni_aff45176 -bd02-43cf-9895-c212fa392de2.xml.asp I had this problem with Daemon tools and Acohol 120%
      --
      /. is good for you.
    2. Re:Strange... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, should probably just turn off that buffer overrun protection, don't know what it's good for anyways. Also you should set your administrative password to blank and share out your entire C drive with Everyone granted full control, just to make things easier.

  2. Sysinternals is great by Dr.Opveter · · Score: 5, Informative
    I love their stuff

    No really, they have class utilities for free, thanks Sysinternals

    --
    Sample this!
  3. Bloated Software Giant Ahead of the Curve Again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow. Pop-up blocking, rootkit detection, basic network security... isn't it amazing how an enormous patent library and billions of dollars encourages so much innovation? It's like they're ten years ahead of everyone else.

    Wait... no, the other way around...

    Free Sony PSPs. It's real. It's here.

  4. Rootkit? by Fls'Zen · · Score: 5, Funny

    I didn't think people needed rootkits for windows...

    1. Re:Rootkit? by slavemowgli · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why not? The purpose of a rootkit is usually not so much to take over a box (trivial on a standard windows installation), but rather to hide the fact that such a take-over occured.

      --
      quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
  5. handy by diegocgteleline.es · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This will be interesting as soon as spyware starts using rootkits in windows.

    You know, Microsoft is securing (really) XP with the SP2, popups-blockers, restrictions on activex objects....which is great, but Microsoft has allowed a whole industry to grow - the spyware industry. There's lot of money there and they aren't going to stop so easily, they'll try other methods, and the fact that 99% of XP users runs with administrator privileges is too sexy, it allows you to reach the kernel, where you're god and you can bypass spyware/virus programs...(and if today's spyware is very poorly designed and can break your IE eve when they don't really wnat that, guess how systems will start to break if rootkits are started to use....)

  6. Looking forward... by Apiakun · · Score: 5, Funny

    defeating their tool would require a level of sophistication not yet seen

    What, until tomorrow?

  7. If you run linux by Apreche · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you run linux you can use chkrootkit

    --
    The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
  8. Re:A level of sophistication? by johndiii · · Score: 5, Informative

    As the sysinternals article suggests, boot from a known clean CD and do an "off-line" system scan. They make the point that it will never be possible to determine with absolute certainty that a system is clean from inside the system.

    --
    Floating face-down in a river of regret...and thoughts of you...
  9. Microsoft BSA by TheFlyingGoat · · Score: 5, Informative

    While you're at it, download the Microsoft Baseline Security Tool. It's not quite the same, but it's an excellent tool for anyone looking to make their Windows box more secure. It can also scan computers on your network (that you have rights on), so you can easily find all the Windows boxes on your network that aren't up to date on their patches, have Guest accounts enabled, or other bad things.

    --
    You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
  10. Reputation Counts by Ridgelift · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell have been providing invaluable tools for years. Even if Microsoft released a rootkit detection package tomorrow, I would still use sysinternal's over anything Microsoft provides because "there is no anonymous team of programmers or writers behind Sysinternals". They put their name on everything they give away and sell.

    When it comes to trust, people put their names on things they know are trustworthy. I can't count the number of times I've felt betrayed by Microsoft's products not doing what they're supposed to do, only to discover a flaw in their product that they knew about but didn't tell so as not to affect sales. I also can't count the number of times utilities such as NTFS for DOS have saved my butt in the field.

    Way to go Sysinternals.

    --
    Ruby on Rails Screencast
  11. Sysinternals.com is a Good site by tristanj · · Score: 5, Informative
    Sysinternals has been around a while. These guys really know their stuff when it comes to Windows operating systems.

    Here are some good tools of their that I use frequently

    Autoruns

    http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/autorun s.shtml shows a complete list of programs that start up automatically when windows starts. Filemon

    http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/filemon.s html Filemon shows all filesystem access, so you can see which files programs are accessing. I have found it very useful in diagnosing software problems and fighting spyware. Regmon

    http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/regmon.sh tml Like filemon, but for registry access. Shows keys being read and created. Pagedefrag

    http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/pagedef rag.shtml Defrags the registry hive (most of the registry is stored on disk but is not typically defragmented by many tools) and paging file. Also many others here

    http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/utilities.shtml

    IMHO any windows admin should have this stuff installed. Many of the utils come with source code.

  12. Your system is fine... by Leadhyena · · Score: 5, Informative
    There is nothing wrong with your system. In the .chm file provided with the RootkitRevealer it explains:
    Hidden from Windows API discrepancies are the ones exhibited by most rootkits, however you should expect to see a number of such entries on any NTFS volume since NTFS hides its metada files, such as $MFT and $Secure, from the Windows API. In addition, there are a number of Registry keys that are inaccessible from the Windows API and will report as access-denied discrepancies.
    This explains all of the listed entries except for the last one(the $BADCLUS entry is due to missing clusters, like the previous poster said, and you need to do a scandisk). Your last entry is there because you had Firefox open when you ran the scan. Again from the help file:
    Files or Registry data created after a scan starts will also show up as discrepancies, so run RootkitRevealer on an idle system.
    You're fine, although your reaction will be similar to many other users who will see the same thing and freak out similarly, because they don't understand NT internals... I think this is not a good tool to release to the masses, and should only be used by sysadmins, just like how HijackThis is really good for detecting spyware, but only to someone who knows something about Windows systems.

    Not to mention that if you have a rootkit installed, you better be prepared to wipe your system clean and reinstall the OS, because otherwise there's no way of knowing if you have the whole thing removed.