Re: kernel.org status: hints on how to check your machine for intrusion

David Miller
2011-10-01T01:15:33Z

From: Greg KH <greg@kroah.com>
Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:59:24 -0700

> 1. Install the chkrootkit package from your distro repository and see if it
> reports anything. If your distro doesn't have the chkroot package,
> download it from:
> http://www.chkrootkit.org/
>
> Another tool is the ossec-rootcheck tool which can be found at:
> http://www.ossec.net/main/rootcheck
>
> And another one is the rkhunter program:
> http://www.rootkit.nl/projects/rootkit_hunter.html
> [Note, this tool has the tendancy to give false-positives on some
> Debian boxes, please read /usr/share/doc/rkhunter/README.Debian.gz if
> you run this on a Debian machine]

I quickly found that it gives false positives on Fedora15 too.

It thinks one is infected with Suckit.

It's check is essentially "strings /sbin/init | egrep HOME" which
triggers with:

XDG_CONFIG_HOME
XDG_DATA_HOME
HOME=%s

I'm sure chkrootkit might be useful as a guide, but the seeming
pervasiveness of it's false positives make it much less useful than it
could be.