OpenSecurityTraining: Rootkits: What they are, and how to find them (day 1, part 1)

Rootkits: What they are, and how to find them
Creator: Xeno Kovah

Rootkits are a class of malware which are dedicated to hiding the attacker's presence on a compromised system. This class will focus on understanding how rootkits work, and what tools can be used to help find them.

This will be a very hands-on class where we talk about specific techniques which rootkits use, and then do labs where we show how a proof of concept rootkit is able to hide things from a defender. Example techniques include
•Trojaned binaries
•Inline hooks
•Import Address Table (IAT) hooking
•System Call Table/System Service Descriptor Table (SSDT) hooking
•Interrupt Descriptor Table (IDT) hooking
•Direct Kernel Object Manipulation (DKOM)
•Kernel Object Hooking (KOH)
•IO Request Packet (IRP) filtering
•Hiding files/processes/open ports
•Compromising the Master Boot Record (MBR) to install a "bootkit"

The class will help the student learn which tools to use to look for rootkits on Windows systems, how to evaluate the breadth of a tool's detection capabilities, and how to interpret tool results.

This class is structured so that students are given a homework to detect rootkits *before* they have taken the class. This homework is given in the context of the following scenario:

"You, being the only 'security person' in the area, have been called in to
examine a running Windows server because "it's acting funny." They don't
care that you like Mac/Linux/BSD/Plan9 better, you need to look at it! You
are solemnly informed that this is system is mission critical and can only
be rebooted if absolutely necessary. You must investigate whether any sort
of compromise has taken place on the system, with minimal impact to the
mission. What do you do? What DO you DO?"