Rootkits Coming to Cisco ISO Routers

Via The Register UK -

Security researchers have devised a rootkit capable of covertly monitoring and controlling Cisco routers.

Sebastian Muniz, of Core Security, plans to demo Cisco IOS rootkit software he developed during a presentation at the EuSecWest conference in London on 22 May.

Muniz's is reckoned to be the first researcher to apply rootkits to systems running Cisco IOS software. His work builds on the pioneering work of security researcher Michael Lynn, who controversially demonstrated interactive shell code for Cisco’s proprietary Internetworking Operating System (IOS) during Blackhat 2005.

Muniz has developed techniques for applying rootkit technology to embedded systems, such as routers running Cisco IOS. He is due to repeat a demo of his software at the Black Hat conference in Vegas in August, as an abstract for his proposed talk explains.

Different ways to infect a target IOS will be shown like run-time patching and image binary patching. To discuss the binary patching technique from a practical point of view, a set of Python scripts that provides a the methods to insert a generic rootkit implementation called DIK (Da Ios rootKit) will be introduced and it's done in plain C for IOS. Also other techniques like run-time image infection will be discussed in detail.

"An IOS rootkit is able to perform the tasks that any other rootkit would do on desktop computer operating systems," Muniz told IDG. Hackers hoping to plant the rootkit would first need to obtain admin login credentials so that they could install software on networking devices, perhaps by using a separate exploit. But once planted such rootkits could be used to carry out all sorts of mischief.

Muniz doesn't intend to release his software. He hopes his talk will dispel the belief that rootkits for networking kit are impossible in the same way that Lynn's talk showed how it might be possible to plant malware onto routers. Muniz explained: "I've done this with the purpose of showing that IOS rootkits are real, and that appropriate security measures must be taken".