Fu

Fu rootkit does not try to hide itself on the compromised machine. Since it is not able to hide files, the hidden malware can still be detected and removed with signature-based AV scanners.

Fu rootkit is publicly available in binary and source code format. The technical information below is based on the public version.

Installation

The public version of Fu rootkit consists of two files: one executable file (.exe) and one kernel-mode driver file (.sys). The driver does the actual hiding where as the executable file is used to configure and command the driver.

Fu requires administrative privileges to install successfully. The executable file installs and loads the driver. This results in one registry key:

• HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\[driver_name]

where [driver_name] represents the name of the driver file without the .sys extension.

Hiding Technique

Fu allows the intruder to hide information from user-mode applications and even from kernel-mode modules. Following items can be hidden:

• Processes
• Kernel-mode modules

Fu hides information by directly modifying certain kernel data structures used by the operating system. Specifically, it removes to-be-hidden entries from two linked lists with symbolic names: PsActiveProcessHead and PsLoadedModuleList.

In addition, Fu is able to modify a process' token to change its security context. This has two impacts on the compromised system. First, it can modify privileges and access rights of any running process. Second, it can fool security auditing by replacing the owner SID of any running process.