A researcher at Black Hat Europe this week will demonstrate a more stealthy way to hack Linux

Apr 14, 2009 | 04:21 PM
By Kelly Jackson Higgins
DarkReading

Kernel rootkits are tough enough to detect, but a researcher this week has demonstrated an even sneakier method of hacking Linux.
The attack attack exploits an oft-forgotten function in Linux versions 2.4 and above in order to quietly insert a rootkit into the operating system kernel as a way to hide malware processes, hijack system calls, and open remote backdoors into the machine, for instance. At Black Hat Europe this week in Amsterdam, Anthony Lineberry, senior software engineer for Flexilis, will demonstrate how to hack the Linux kernel by exploiting the driver interface to physically addressable memory in Linux, called /dev/mem.

At the Linux Collaboration Summit, the director of Intel's Open Source Technology Center has revealed some details about the company's vision for Moblin, its Linux-based mobile platform. He says that Intel hopes to achieve two-second boot time and redefine mobile user interfaces.

 By Ryan Paul | Last updated April 8, 2009 6:10 PM CT

REDMOND, Wash.--Microsoft's top intellectual property lawyer said that the company's legal action against TomTom over Linux was specific to that company, but he declined to say whether other suits over the open source operating system might follow.

February 25, 2009 9:08 PM PST
by Ina Fried

"I wouldn't speculate at this point," Horacio Gutierrez told CNET News in an interview late Wednesday. Gutierrez did add that Microsoft's patent suit against TomTom, which includes three claims related to file management techniques used in the Linux kernel, was specific to that company.

It is the "TomTom implementation of the Linux kernel that infringes these claims," Gutierrez said. "There are many flavors of Linux (and) many implementations of the Linux kernel. Cases such as these are very fact-specific."