Kernel Rootkits Detection Method by Monitoring Branches Using Hardware Features

Toshihiro YAMAUCHI, Yohei AKAO
2017 IEICE transactions on information and systems  
An operating system is an essential piece of software that manages hardware and software resources. Thus, attacks on an operating system kernel using kernel rootkits pose a particularly serious threat. Detecting an attack is difficult when the operating system kernel is infected with a kernel rootkit. For this reason, handling an attack will be delayed causing an increase in the amount of damage done to a computer system. In this paper, we propose Kernel Rootkits Guard (KRGuard), which is a new
more » ... method to detect kernel rootkits that monitors branch records in the kernel space. Since many kernel rootkits make branches that differ from the usual branches in the kernel space, KRGuard can detect these differences by using the hardware features of commodity processors. Our evaluation shows that KRGuard can detect kernel rootkits that involve new branches in the system call handler processing with small overhead. key words: kernel rootkit detection, last branch record, operating system, system security
doi:10.1587/transinf.2016inl0003 fatcat:vwvovpa4vzf67hv63x7qbcjaga