“Rackspace Managed Hosting, a leading provider of managed
Internet hosting services, today announced the release of
“Alamo,” a solution to Knark, which is a lethal weapon in the
Linux computer hacker’s arsenal.”
“Knark is a type of cracking weapon often referred to as a
Trojan horse — a program that hides malicious or harmful code
inside seemingly harmless data. Knark is used by hackers to cover
their tracks, making it virtually impossible to detect any kind of
malicious activity until it is too late. After infiltrating the
server, a hacker can insert Knark into the deepest level of the
Linux operating system and use it to shoot down any attempts at
discovery.”
“As Knark is virtually undetectable while a computer is running,
the problem poses a serious threat to computer security,
particularly for servers that need to be up and running constantly.
The only way to detect whether or not Knark is being used is to
take the system offline and perform an “autopsy” on the drive. If
the system is mission-critical, however, taking a server down may
not be a viable option.”