Guide to Chkrootkit - checking for intruders

[taslayer]

Chkrootkit is a powerful tool to scan your Linux server for trojans. We'll show you how to install it, scan your server and setup a daily automated scanning job that emails you the report.

Installing CHKROOTKIT

Version 0.42b (Sept. 20 2003)

SSH as admin to your server. DO NOT use telnet, it should be disabled anyways.

#Change to root
su -

#Type the following
wget ftp://ftp.pangeia.com.br/pub/seg/pac/chkrootkit.tar.gz

# Check the MD5 SUM of the download for security:
ftp://ftp.pangeia.com.br/pub/seg/pac/chkrootkit.md5

md5sum chkrootkit.tar.gz

#Unpack the tarball using the command
tar xvzf chkrootkit.tar.gz

#Change to the directory it created
cd chkrootkit*

#Compile by typing
make sense

#To use chkrootkit, just type the command
./chkrootkit

#Everything it outputs should be 'not found' or 'not infected'...

Important Note: If you see 'Checking `bindshell'... INFECTED (PORTS: 465)' read on.
I'm running PortSentry/klaxon. What's wrong with the bindshell test?
If you're running PortSentry/klaxon or another program that binds itself to unused ports probably chkrootkit will give you a false positive on the bindshell test (ports 114/tcp, 465/tcp, 511/tcp, 1008/tcp, 1524/tcp, 1999/tcp, 3879/tcp, 4369/tcp, 5665/tcp, 10008/tcp, 12321/tcp, 23132/tcp, 27374/tcp, 29364/tcp, 31336/tcp, 31337/tcp, 45454/tcp, 47017/tcp, 47889/tcp, 60001/tcp).

#Now,
cd ..
#Then remove the .gz file
rm chkrootkit.tar.gz

Daily Automated System Scan that emails you a report

While in SSH run the following:
pico /etc/cron.daily/chkrootkit.sh

Insert the following to the new file:
#!/bin/bash
cd /yourinstallpath/chkrootkit-0.42b/
./chkrootkit | mail -s "Daily chkrootkit from Servername" admin@youremail.com

Important:
1. Replace 'yourinstallpath' with the actual path to where you unpacked Chkrootkit.
2. Change 'Servername' to the server your running so you know where it's coming from.
3. Change 'admin@youremail.com' to your actual email address where the script will mail you.

Now save the file in SSH:
Ctrl+X then type Y

Change the file permissions so we can run it
chmod 755 /etc/cron.daily/chkrootkit.sh

Now if you like you can run a test report manually in SSH to see how it looks.
cd /etc/cron.daily/

./chkrootkit.sh

You'll now receive a nice email with the report! This will now happen everyday so you don't have to run it manually.

[NCHosting]

I understand this is an old post.

I run this on my server daily. I highly recommend anyone with a dedicated server run this software. I recieve an email every morning regarding the scan results.

[Amelia]

Nice bump :D

I completely agree, Chkrootkit is certainly a powerful tool to scan your Linux servers. It searches for discrepancies and any hidden information that indicates a breach of security on a system.