3 ms·

Really? where would the rootkit hide? Even if I replace all my HD sectors with zeros? I'm truly interested to know if this is real. thanks

• codexon 13y ago
  If I remember correctly there are rootkits that hide in firmware.
• devindotcom 13y ago
  EFI partition, BIOS, other nonvolatile system memory? If it gets root level access it can hide anywhere there are a few KB. Even less than that will do if you're just putting a hook to instruct the computer to re-download the virus if it is detected that it has been removed.
  • lingben 13y ago
    wow... so there's no way to clean it? the only option is to junk the hardware?
    • cpach 13y ago
      Well, even if you cleaned some of the storage areas devindotcom mentions… How would you know you didn't miss any other area?
• spectre256 13y ago
  There was an ars article (http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/10/meet-badbios-the-mysterious-mac-and-pc-malware-that-jumps-airgaps/ http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/10/meet-badbios-the-mys...) that was on HN just a few days ago describing all sorts of ways to hide rootkits in nearly any component of your machine with programmable firmware.
• krenoten 13y ago
  There are lots of things that use updatable firmware that can read and write data in interesting places. Portability is often an issue, so I guess it boils down to motivations of the writer.