Rootkits outfox old-school malware protection

Even trusted platform module [TPM] chips are useless against advanced rootkits, according to McGeorge. He said despite Microsoft's Ben Fathi's comments, TPMs are helpless to defend against hyperjacking, in which malware takes over an operating system negating software security applications like Kernel Patch Protection.

"A TPM takes an initial encrypted sumcheck of a hard drive and crosschecks the result against the TPM chipset on each boot, which detects additions to the kernel," McGeorge said.

"However TPMs don't work against dynamically inserted rootkits because you can't do a sumcheck against the TPM when you are on the Internet and surfing around which is where the rootkits install, infect and uninstall."

Gatford also agrees that rootkits can bypass TPM security as it is not designed for on-the-fly modifications, adding advanced rootkits can operate in system RAM.

Joanna Rutkowska, security researcher at Singapore-based Coseinc Advanced Malware Labs, said the best way to detect memory-based rootkits is to acquire a RAM image.

"Several hardware-based systems exist for acquiring an image of a computer's RAM [such as] Tribble, Komoku's CoPilot and RAM Capture Tool from BBN Technologies, [however] none are particularly easy to find," Rutkowska said.

Assurance.com.au director Neal Wise said users need tight access controls to prevent rootkit infection.

"[Users need] hardware that allows security subsystems to be built on the trusted computing concept," Wise said.

"Anti-virus programs will only detect malicious activity on the file system if it is listed in its signature database, but it really only helps with malware because rootkits need only change a few bytes to remain hidden.

"You can cleanup after a rootkit by re-imaging, but you can't ever trust it because it compromises parts of the system that everything is tied to." He said infection by on-the-fly rootkits depends on whether a browser's security module allows manipulation of the operating system.

Market-Alerts' McGeorge said rootkits permanently compromise all files on a system because of infection by rootkit backups.

"There will never be a universal rootkit detector however the most powerful alternatives will be online-offline comparison scanners that integrate with anti-virus programs," he said.

"At the moment, traditional security applications are as useful as a wooden frying pan."