We dont get many stats as to how many PC’s in the world have rootkits installed and hiding malware like keyloggers and spyware in the background. Rootkits are too good to be true for the malware authors out there so it only goes to say that rootkits should be more prevalent. Except Microsoft does not think they are.
Microsoft recently published a Security Intelligance report entitled “An in-depth perspective of trends in the malicious and potentially unwanted software landscape in the first half of 2006″. This report had many references to rootkits. The references included the amount of individual PC’s scanned using the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) and Windows Defender along with the percentage of rootkits found. Symantec today released a Security Brief entitled “Handling Today’s Tough Security Threats” in which they compared their software against other companies like Microsoft and McAffee. The Interesting part of the report for me is the rootkit detection section.
But first lets have a look at the Microsoft stats.
Microsoft says in it’s report that of the 3.2 million computers 8% had rootkits which is a drop from 17% since 2005. This means that Microsoft was able to find 256,000 (256K) computers with rootkits.
Microsoft like Symantec scanned for the Sony XCP rootkit which it could be argued didnt hide malware ( although malware authors used it’s stealth capabiliies to hide their own malware ).
The Symantec report says they tested for rootkits that are currently being used in the wild. Thompson Cyber Security Labs randomly selected 20 rootkits and used their own samples for this test. We dont know if the Sony Rootkit was one of the 20 rootkits picked.
Symantec, in the report state that of the 20 rootkits tested against the Symantec software identified all 20 while Microsoft only identified 5. This shows that Microsoft only identified 20% of the rootkits tested.
So assuming like for like, the Microsoft figure of 256,000 unique computers with rootkits could mean, taking Symantec results into account, Mirosoft have only found 20% of the actual number of computers with rootkit. Thats a staggering 1,280,000 (1.28 Million) computers infected with rootkits.
We could also add the highly publicised Gromozon and Haxdoor rootkits that are taking computers by storm at the moment but again there are no solid figures to use.
Hopefully we can get more precise details so we can really see if Microsoft is falling behind in the identification of rootkits and whether there really are 1.28 Million computers with rootkits hiding malware.
Keep Safe,
regards
Steo
www.antirootkit.com
