Rootkit Hunter alternatives
Looking for an alternative tool to replace Rootkit Hunter? During the review of Rootkit Hunter we looked at other open source tools. Based on their category, tags, and text, these are the ones that have the best match.
Top 3
- chkrootkit (malware scanner)
- ClamAV (malware scanner)
- LMD (malware detection tool)
These tools are ranked as the best alternatives to Rootkit Hunter.
Alternatives (by score)
chkrootkit
Introduction
The chkrootkit tool consists of multiple parts that may detect the presence of rootkit parts of rootkit behavior on a system.
Some areas that are checked include:
- interface in promiscuous mode
- lastlog deletions
- wtmp deletions
- wtmpx deletions
- signs of LKM trojans
- utmp deletions
Project details
chkrootkit is written in C, shell script.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + Used language is shell script
- + Project is mature (10+ years)
- - Long time between releases
Typical usage
- Malware detection
- Malware scanning
ClamAV
Introduction
ClamAV is a popular tool to detect malicious software or malware. While it calls itself an antivirus engine, it probably won't encounter many viruses, as they have become rare. It is more likely to find other forms of malware like worms, backdoors, and ransomware. ClamAV can be used in a few ways, from doing an occasional scan up to scanning in batch. ClamAV does not do on-access scanning but can be combined with other tools to obtain similar functionality. ClamAV is often used to support scanning incoming emails for malicious content.
Project details
ClamAV is written in C.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + Many maintainers
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Malware analysis
- Malware detection
- Malware scanning
LMD
Introduction
LMD uses MD5 file hashes and HEX pattern matches to define the malware signatures. These are used to detect malware.
Project details
LMD is written in shell script.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Malware scanning
Malice
Introduction
Malice is a malware analysis that wants to provide a free and open source version of VirusTotal. The goal of Malice is to make it usable by both independent researchers up to fortune 500 companies.
Malice is useful for those that do malware analysis or deal with user-generated files that may contain malware. The framework allows scanning files and directories to see if they are infected.
Project details
Malice is written in Golang.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 500 GitHub stars
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Malware analysis
- Malware detection
- Malware research
- Malware scanning
Malscan
Introduction
Malscan is a tool to scan for malicious software (malware) such as viruses, worms, and backdoors. Its goal is to extend ClamAV with more scanning modes and signatures. It targets web servers running Linux, but can also be used on mail servers and desktops.
Project details
Malscan is written in shell script.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + Used language is shell script
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Malware protection
- Malware scanning
MultiScanner
Introduction
MultiScanner helps malware analysts by providing a toolkit to perform both automated and manual analysis. The data extracted from the analysis can be easily stored together, including the relevant metadata and samples. It allows enriching the data further by retrieving information from external resources.
Project details
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 10 contributors
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Malware analysis
- Malware detection
- Malware scanning
Loki
Introduction
Loki is security tool to find so-called indicators of compromise (IOC). It does this by scanning files and then uses pattern matching.Project details
Loki is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 10 contributors
- + Commercial support available
- + More than 500 GitHub stars
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Digital forensics
- Intrusion detection
- Security monitoring
Maltrail
Introduction
Maltrail monitors for traffic on the network that might indicate system compromise or other bad behavior. It is great for intrusion detection and monitoring.Project details
Maltrail is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 10 contributors
- + More than 3000 GitHub stars
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Intrusion detection
- Network analysis
- Security monitoring
YARA
Introduction
YARA is a tool to identify and classify malware samples. It uses textual or binary patterns to match data, combined with a boolean expression to define a match. YARA is multi-platform, can be used via a command-line interface or via Python scripts using the yara-python extension.
Project details
YARA is written in C.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 50 contributors
- + More than 2000 GitHub stars
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Malware analysis
- Malware detection
- Malware scanning
Dagda
Introduction
The main reasons to use Dagda is the detection of vulnerable or malicious components within your containerized environment.
Project details
Dagda is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Malware detection
- Malware scanning
- Vulnerability management
- Vulnerability scanning
SSMA
Introduction
SSMA is short for Simple Static Malware Analyzer. The tool can perform a set of tests against a malware sample and retrieve metadata from it. SSMA can analyze ELF and PE and analyze its structure. For example, it can retrieve the PE file header information and its sections. Other pieces it can analyze is the usage of packers, anti-debugging techniques, cryptographic algorithms, domains, email addresses, and IP addresses. It can also check if the sample is already detected or blocked by using VirusTotal and the blocklist of malwaredomains.com.
Project details
SSMA is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
- - No releases on GitHub available
Typical usage
- Malware analysis
- Malware detection
- Malware scanning
- Reverse engineering
Diamorphine
Introduction
Rootkits are typically considered to be malware, or malicious software. With the intent to hide, this type of software is often used after a breach. Learning about how it works can be useful for security researchers and security professionals.
Project details
Diamorphine is written in C.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Learning
YaraGuardian
Introduction
YaraGuardian provides a web-based interface that helps to manage Yara rules. It can be used to search, organize, and bulk-edit rules. The tool also prevents creating duplicate entries, which is a nice additional benefit of this management utility.
Project details
YaraGuardian is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Malware analysis
yarGen
Introduction
The yarGen utility helps with creating YARA rules for malware detection. It can combine both 'goodware' and 'malware', to properly craft the right rules.Project details
PHP Malware Finder
Introduction
PHP Malware Finder is a tool to find malicious PHP scripts. This threat is common for most web hosters and websites of their customers.Project details
PHP Malware Finder is written in shell script.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 500 GitHub stars
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Malware scanning
EvilAbigail
Introduction
This tool is used to perform an attack that is known as "evil maid".
Project details
WeBaCoo
Introduction
WeBaCoo could be useful for penetration tests and security assessments, to test the effectiveness of security monitoring solutions.
Project details
WeBaCoo is written in Perl, Ruby.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Application testing
- Penetration testing
sshLooter
Introduction
The most likely use for tools like this is backdoor a system after root permissions were gained. By planting it into the PAM stack, it allows for password sniffing.
Project details
sshLooter is written in Python, shell script.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code is easy to read and understand
- - Unknown project license
Typical usage
- Information snooping
- Password discovery
- Password sniffing
Binary Analysis Next Generation (BANG)
Introduction
BANG is a framework to unpack files recursively and scan them. The files can be firmware, binaries, or malware. The main goal is to scan all files and perform classification and labeling. This way each file can be further analyzed based on the characteristics.
Project details
Binary Analysis Next Generation is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
- - No releases on GitHub available
Typical usage
- Binary analysis
- Malware analysis
- Malware scanning
Cuckoo Sandbox (cuckoo)
Introduction
In a matter of seconds, Cuckoo Sandbox provides detailed results on what a file does within an isolated environment. This helps with malware analysis and understanding what it exactly tries to achieve. Further analysis can be done, based on the previous actions that were done.
Cuckoo Sandbox was created by Claudio Guarnieri as part of the Google Summer of Code project in 2010.
Project details
Cuckoo Sandbox is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 2000 GitHub stars
- + The source code of this software is available
- - Many provided pull requests are still open
- - Many reported issues are still open
Typical usage
- Digital forensics
- Malware analysis
Mal Tindex
Introduction
Mal Tindex is a tool that performs binary analysis on malware samples. It analyzes the binaries it is provided to learn about the specifics of each malware sample that makes them unique. This way data can be gathered that may provide background information. For example, it could provide the attribution of a particular actor or malware campaign.
Project details
Mal Tindex is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Malware analysis
- Malware research
Viper
Introduction
Viper organizes the malware samples and exploits you found over time. It calls itself "Metasploit for malware researchers". Viper has a terminal interface to store, search and analyze files. As it is a framework, is also allows you to create your plugins.
Project details
bingrep
Introduction
Searches through binaries and highlights the most important areas with colors.
Supported binary formats:
- ELF 32/64, arm, x86, openrisc
- Mach 32/64, arm, x86
- PE
Project details
hBlock
Introduction
For the privacy-aware users, tools like hBlock can be helpful to block malicious domains, malware, advertisements, and trackers. Trackers could be pixels added to websites to track which pages you visited, which might invade your privacy.
Project details
hBlock is written in shell script.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + Used language is shell script
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Malware protection
- Privacy enhancement
- Provide anonymity
bamfdetect
Introduction
With bamfdetect, malware and bots can be analyzed. It identifies and extracts information and returns data in JSON format.
Project details
bamfdetect is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Malware analysis
- Malware scanning
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