Ah, here at Darknet we have always been a fan of Sophos and the way they operate, a very efficient company and good to see good technical products still coming out of the UK!

Another good move by them, they have decided to offer a free rootkit detection tool called Sophos Anti-Rootkit..Yah I know, not a very imaginative name eh?

Called Sophos Anti-Rootkit, the software will detect and remove both known and unknown rootkits, and it will warn systems administrators if removing the software might harm operating system integrity.

Rootkits are a collection of tools used by hackers to gain administrative privileges on compromised machines. They are typically used to help hide other forms of malware — keyloggers or Trojan horse programs, for example — from antivirus software.

Rootkits got a LOT of press after the whole Sony rootkit fiasco, so it’s good to see a decent free tool being offered to the general public.

Sophos Anti-Rootkit works with the Windows NT, 2000, XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. The software features a graphical interface to help guide users through the process of detecting and removing the malicious software.

Since the Sony fiasco, the security industry has paid more attention to the rootkit problem, and there are now a number of free utilities designed to identify this type of software. Other tools include RootkitRevealer, GMER and IceSword.

We shall try out as soon as possible, after all we’ve had chkrootkit on *nix forever…about time someone did something similar for Windows.

You can download Sophos Anti-Rootkit here.

Source: ComputerWorld