New Hiding Place for Hackers...

May 2008

Hackers find a new place to hide
rootkits. Security researchers have developed a new type of malicious
rootkit software that hides itself in an obscure part of a computer's
microprocessor, hidden from current antivirus products. Called a System
Management Mode (SMM) rootkit, the software runs in a protected part of a
computer's memory that can be locked and rendered invisible to the operating
system, but which can give attackers a picture of processes in a computer's
memory. The SMM rootkit comes with keylogging and communications software
and could be used to steal sensitive information. The proof-of-concept
software will be unveiled for the first time at the Black Hat security
conference in Las Vegas this August.