Fire Chili Rootkit Aids Deep Panda APT Operations
A rootkit is a type of malware, which is meant to conceal itself as an integral part of the operating system. It may often pose as a driver, which grants it elevated permissions, including the ability to prevent programs from accessing certain files, processes, and even registry entries. As you can probably guess, a threat like the Fire Chili Rootkit could pave the way for other malware, which would be able to avoid detection easily.
The Fire Chili Rootkit is being used by a Chinese Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group commonly referred to as Deep Panda. They have been active in the cybercrime field for over three years, and their campaigns continue to this very day – despite the fact that some of their members were detained by law enforcement.
The Fire Chili Rootkit targets Windows systems exclusively, and it appears to be signed with digital certificates stolen by companies involved in game development and cybersecurity. The malicious payload is loaded on Windows boot up, and it is then used to hide certain components from users and security tools. According to research, the Fire Chili Rootkit can conceal files, processes, registry keys, and even network connections. Needless to say, such an attack could have devastating results, as dangerous ransomware, spyware, and Trojans could go undetected. The good news is that reputable antivirus software suites, firewalls, and to her security features could prevent the Fire Chili Rootkit and similar threats from ever getting a chance to establish themselves on your device.
