McAfee the results of a research study by McAfee AVERT Labs announced today that demonstrate that the use of stealth technologies to camouflage malware and commercial PUPs (potentially unwanted programs) is on the rise.

In the last three years alone, the number of cases where stealth technology has been used, has increased according to the study by more than 600 percent. Malicious programs that work with stealth technology, called rootkits, to distinguish them from commercial applications that use stealth technology.

McAfee is assuming that the sudden spread of stealth technologies, open online forums on the Web is due, the hundreds lines of rootkit code included, which can be downloaded and can be downloaded along with the rootkit binary executables for recompilation, changes and improvements. The availability of rootkit code and stealth-generation kit facilitates the creators of malware programs the camouflage of processes, files and registry keys without detailed knowledge of the target operating system. The power and versatility of stealth technologies contributed decisively that they today are found in virtually all known forms of malware. They are used not only in malware, but also in commercial standard software, with some vendors of security software and consumer electronics recently due to the use of stealth technologies are now in their products in the criticism about had to experience Sony on their own bodies.

The main findings of the study:

• The complexity of rootkits took to between 2000 and 2005 by more than 400 percent, in the direct between the first quarter of 2005 and 2006 an increase in the complexity over 900 percent was recorded.
• The share of Linux-based techniques has fallen from a peak of 71 percent of all malware stealth components in 2001 to a negligible number in the year 2005, whereas the number of Windows-based stealth components has increased over the same period by 2,300 percent.
• The open source environment is together with online collaboration sites and blogs of the major contributor to the proliferation and complexity of rootkits.

The study by McAfee AVERT Labs is in addition to several factors for the increased use and variety of rootkits and illuminated the motives of the rootkit authors. In addition, it indicates a technological trends, which will take effect on the future development of rootkits. This is the first of a series of white papers, dealing primarily with stealth technologies and rootkits. The study by McAfee AVERT Labs can be viewed online.