What is chkrootkit and the steps to Install chkrootkit
The chkrootkit is a security scanner to check if the system is infected with the ‘rootkit’. A rootkit is a malicious software which is capable of having administrator-level access to a computer or network. The rootkit allows the hackers to take the control of a system without the user knowing it. This means that the rootkit is capable of executing files and changing system configurations on the target machine and many more which can be done only as the super user of the Linux machine.
Please note that scanning for rootkits will not stop all attacks, it is not an active defense. If your server has been compromised then a scan will not stop the rootkit.
Install chkrootkit
The following steps will help you to install chkrootkit on CentOS.
cd /usr/local/src wget ftp://ftp.pangeia.com.br/pub/seg/pac/chkrootkit.tar.gz tar xvf chkrootkit.tar.gz cd chkrootkit-* make sense
Now, you can run the chkrootkit to scan the server. Please note that the present working directory should be “/usr/local/src/chkrootkit-0.50”.
./chkrootkit
Daily scan report script
Create a file named scan.sh
vim /etc/cron.daily/chkrootkit.sh
#!/bin/bash cd /usr/local/src/chkrootkit-*/ ; ./chkrootkit |grep -v not| /bin/mail -s 'CHROOTKIT Scan Result' your@email.com
Make it executable
chmod +x /etc/cron.daily/chkrootkit.sh
The script will email your daily scan report. Also the above steps can also be used to install chkrootkit on cPanel server. Also, please keep this in mind that, using chkrootkit, you can’t remove and found 100% rootkits. You can secure your server from rootkits by ensuring that all applications and softwares are up-to-date and the system kept patched against all known vulnerabilities.