How to Detect and Remove a Rootkit | Antivirus Software

The use of malicious tools and methods in the IT field never cease to surprise, and they cause headaches for more than one user every day. In this note you will know the best way to eliminate a rootkit forever.

What Is a Rootkit

First of all, a rootkit is an application generally used by hackers to disguise or hide a malicious program . Specifically, a rootkit manages to hide files that make it easier for malware to enter the system.

A rootkit is capable of starting a rogue program when the hacker manages to connect to some port. For obvious reasons, this manages to fool the user, who does not suspect that something strange is happening on their system.

Similarly, it is important to clarify that there are specially designed rootkits for each operating system , be it Windows, Linux or any other.

Another function of a rootkit is to allow administrator privileges to a user who does not originally have them . This occurs to extract information or sensitive data from the victim.

What Are Rootkits Used For?

The main objective of these tools is to cover the illicit action of a malicious program , regardless of the specific activity of said application. This ranges from cyber espionage actions to sending spam.

In this sense, rootkit developers have been concerned to make them undetectable , even when scanned by the most sophisticated antivirus and antispyware programs. When such an analysis is performed, the rootkit always shows a rogue process.

In the same way, a rootkit manages to hide its own file within the system , making it extremely difficult to locate, even when the user and any protection program try to do so through a more exhaustive review.

It is possible that even the antimalware program that is being implemented is distracted in such a way that it executes a "cleaning" of the system against programs that do not have any malicious intent.

Procedure to Remove a Rootkit

While a rootkit is extremely complex to detect, it is not impossible to remove it . As already mentioned, these are programs that hide in an extreme way, but, despite that, they must execute some process in the system memory.

So, to prevent the rootkit from activating, the first thing to do is isolate it . This is achieved by avoiding any type of booting of the operating system on the disk where the malicious program is hosted.

Therefore, a different disk must be used to start the system . After this, and once the rootkit is identified, it will be possible to continue with its elimination.

However, it may happen that this tool is not found in any malware database , so the task becomes more complicated. When this happens, there is most likely a hacker dedicated exclusively to attacking a specific victim.

In this sense, we can mention situations where attackers develop specific rootkits to enter the company system, with the purpose of stealing data, extorting money or carrying out sabotage actions to their operations.

If the rootkit is identified, then it can be removed manually or by antivirus software, depending on its database.

Preventing the Presence of A Rootkit

The best way to prevent a rootkit is to analyze the activities that each program performs when it runs.

In fact, this has a lot to do with suspicious activities on the system. For example, it is already known that the rootkit can be hidden by actions that are only usual for an administrator .

So what happens if many such tasks are running at the same time?

The truth is that this could generate a very suspicious situation, since these types of processes are not usually carried out together at the same time. In other words, it is an extremely unusual situation.

In this sense, there are computer analysis tools that are different from traditional antivirus. This is because, precisely, in detecting strange events as described above.

This is how these intelligent analysis programs are dedicated to permanently tracking the presence of unusual activities, especially when a process requests administrator rights to run.

Finally, it is important to point out that the action of removing a rootkit should be carried out by an advanced user , since it involves actions that can cause problems in the operation of the system.