Rootkits by ponnam sharan
RootKits Rootkits are among the most dangerous tools in a malware developer’s toolbox. They can be easily added to malware in order to gain unauthorized, privileged access to a system as well as achieve stealth and persistence. While not all rootkits are used for malicious purposes, we’ll focus on those that are. Origin of the term ‘rootkit’ The term rootkit can be broken down into two parts. The ‘root’ part can be traced to its origins in UNIX and UNIX-based operating systems. In these environments, the root refers to an account with administrative privileges. Anyone who has root-level access can do pretty much anything on the system. Because the ability to have unrestricted privileges can be dangerous in the hands of a bad actor, or even a beginner, most modern-day UNIX-based operating systems like MacOS, Red Hat, and Ubuntu disable the root account by default an...