Rootkits are on the rise! We define a rootkit as a component that uses stealth to maintain an undetectable presence on a computer. Above and beyond that, the actions performed by a rootkit are done without end-user consent or knowledge.

Open source offers ready-to-use rootkit applications that are widely available to anybody using the Internet. Even an inexperienced rookie would be able to use a rootkit without having to understand how it works. These hi-tech criminals are money hungry and want to hide their actions and presence on any system they get on. Rootkits are perfect to help them commit fraud and identity theft by granting the attackers unauthorized access to privileged and proprietary information, and launching and hiding other malicious applications on the system. Above all, it leaves the hi-tech criminal with a back door to be able to continue to harm the victimized machine. As well, a large proportion of spyware and adware programs that use...

This Weblog and the blogoshpere in generalhave been abuzz with controversy over Microsoft PatchGuard and issuesdealing with appropriate kernel security instrumentation. This blogentry is the first of a two-part series. It provides an excerpt of adraft posting that proposes an abstract host security metasystem andlaws of host security that attempt to raise the level of discourseabove specific features and implementations. This blog entry willoutline the sensor and effector instrumentation laws and the secondblog entry, covering the security and policy component laws, will bepublished later this week. Symantec posted this draft to openly solicitconstructive comments and helpful suggestions for draft refinements.The intent is to reach industry consensus on an architectural frameworkto guide designers of future host security subsystems and supportinginstrumentation.

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This week will find me at the Santa Fe Institute. Wednesday morning kicks off with the Adaptive and Resilient Computing Workshop, and if last year's workshop is any indicator, this one should be very interesting indeed. Meeting with colleagues who work outside the computer security space is extremely informative and helps us to prepare for the many new faces of computing. Although, that only makes sense if you know ahead of time where some technologies are likely to exist and only then can you begin to shape ideas on how you might protect the assets those technologies hold.

For example, let's say that within the next two years, all deep water canals in the state of Florida will be protected against alligator infestation by computerized swimming sharks that work together to form a sort of "canal IDS." We need to make sure the sharks stay up and running to keep those annoying alligators away...

The University of Santa Barbara's software group released the source code for their proof of concept 'Feakk' worm that was developed by Paul Haas in March 2005. The worm uses SMS to send a hyperlink to its target. The targeted user then has to visit the hyperlink and download and acknowledge three sets of prompts in order for the worm to install, at which point it will immediately start to run in the background. It will scan the user's contact list and send a message to each contact (including the recipients' names) and will also scan for new contacts at certain intervals.

Upon installation, the worm checks for a contact with the first name "HACKME." If this isn't found the worm will exit. If it is found, then the worm sends itself to every mobile number it finds in the user's contact list. The author did not write a payload because this was for demonstration purposes only and it should be noted that it can be removed via...