Comments on: AVG Does Freebie RootKit Detector

By: Monday Morning Links Serving: The July 30th Edition | [Geeks Are Sexy] Technology News

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 13:08:00 +0000

[...] releases freebie rootkit detector McAfee follows in AVG’s footsteps and release a freeware rootkit [...]

By: Mackenzie

Mackenzie — Sat, 05 May 2007 07:15:00 +0000

Well to #1 I think a lot of people know they're older because of the root thing (at least the Unix/Linux/BSD sysadmins…), but Sony was the first uh "scandal" made of it.

By: Mackenzie

Mackenzie — Sat, 05 May 2007 07:15:00 +0000

Well to #1 I think a lot of people know they’re older because of the root thing (at least the Unix/Linux/BSD sysadmins…), but Sony was the first uh “scandal” made of it.

By: Dave Keays

Dave Keays — Sat, 05 May 2007 04:01:00 +0000

There are several comments about Anti-Rootkit software using rootkit like technology and that Sony introduced rootkits. I have a couple of comments about that.

#1 The idea of rootkits goes way back into the *nix world. That is where the word came from: 'root' as in uber-user

#2 Rootkits have been used for a while on Windows boxes, I read that Norton's undelete worked like a rootkit by hooking certain API calls so a file wasn't seen but still existed.

#3 Read ROOTKITS.COM or Greg Huglung's "Exploiting Software"

By: Dave Keays

Dave Keays — Sat, 05 May 2007 04:01:00 +0000

There are several comments about Anti-Rootkit software using rootkit like technology and that Sony introduced rootkits. I have a couple of comments about that.

#1 The idea of rootkits goes way back into the *nix world. That is where the word came from: ‘root’ as in uber-user

#2 Rootkits have been used for a while on Windows boxes, I read that Norton’s undelete worked like a rootkit by hooking certain API calls so a file wasn’t seen but still existed.

#3 Read ROOTKITS.COM or Greg Huglung’s “Exploiting Software”

By: Geronima

Geronima — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 02:29:00 +0000

Thanks for letting us know about this!!

By: Geronima

Geronima — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 02:29:00 +0000

Thanks for letting us know about this!!

By: egonitron

egonitron — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 19:29:18 +0000

AVG Offers Free Anti-Rootkit Detector…

Damn Sony for introducing the rootkit. They started it as a method of protecting their CDs from being copied and monitoring your listening habits to send relevant ads (a.k.a. Adware,) but the technology ended up being used to transmit keyloggers and ot…

By: TheMatt

TheMatt — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 05:02:00 +0000

Yeah, it's definitely gotten scarier now that rootkit technology is becoming popular and drifting into the spotlight. I can almost guarantee you that some of these rootkit detectors (any that sit in memory to provide active protection) also employ rootkit technology. Same probably goes for any decent antivirus app these days too, as well as some anti-spyware tools like Webroot Spysweeper Enterprise's client. It's necessary for them to dig into the kernel to protect themselves.

Other legitimate software, such as Alcohol 120% employ rootkit technology as well. It's not the technology itself that is scary, bad, or deserves paranoid (though it is incredibly powerful). It's the usage for creating malware-rootkit-virus things that is scary and evil and stuff.

By: TheMatt

TheMatt — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 05:02:00 +0000

Yeah, it’s definitely gotten scarier now that rootkit technology is becoming popular and drifting into the spotlight. I can almost guarantee you that some of these rootkit detectors (any that sit in memory to provide active protection) also employ rootkit technology. Same probably goes for any decent antivirus app these days too, as well as some anti-spyware tools like Webroot Spysweeper Enterprise’s client. It’s necessary for them to dig into the kernel to protect themselves.

Other legitimate software, such as Alcohol 120% employ rootkit technology as well. It’s not the technology itself that is scary, bad, or deserves paranoid (though it is incredibly powerful). It’s the usage for creating malware-rootkit-virus things that is scary and evil and stuff.

By: Florsie G

Florsie G — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 04:56:00 +0000

That's a good thing to know. AVG does some great stuff. I gave up Norton for good after using the AVG antivirus. I'm trying the Anti-Spyware right now and its working fine. I'll try the rootkit detector and see how it works.

By: Florsie G

Florsie G — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 04:56:00 +0000

That’s a good thing to know. AVG does some great stuff. I gave up Norton for good after using the AVG antivirus. I’m trying the Anti-Spyware right now and its working fine. I’ll try the rootkit detector and see how it works.