Formerly unknown rootkit used to secretly control networks of regional organizations
Windows rootkits, especially those operating in kernel space, are pieces of malware infamous for their near absolute power in the operating system. Usually deployed as drivers, such implants have high privileges in the system, allowing them to intercept and potentially tamper with core I/O operations conducted by the underlying OS, like reading or writing to files or processing incoming and outgoing network packets. The capability to blend into the fabric of the operating system itself, much like security products do, is the quality that earns rootkits their notoriety for stealth and evasion.
Having said that, the successful deployment and execution of a rootkit component in Windows has become a difficult task over the years. With Microsoft’s introduction of Driver Signature Enforcement, it has become harder (though not impossible) to load and run new code in kernel space.
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Source: Kaspersky