System calls and rootkits

Posted Sep 12, 2008 20:27 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (guest, #1954)
In reply to: System calls and rootkits by cde
Parent article: System calls and rootkits

If Linux had been based on a micro-kernel design, getting a rootkit install would have proven more difficult (although not impossible), since the area to secure is much smaller.

I guess you mean getting a rootkit to install into the kernel would be more difficult. But as there would be correspondingly more places than the kernel into which to install a rootkit, I don't think the overall ease of installing a rootkit would be any different.

Note that even with Linux as it exists, a decent rootkit need not touch the kernel.