Install chkrootkit on CentOS or cPanel

What is chkrootkit and the steps to Install chkrootkit

The chkrootkit is a security scanner to check if the system is infected with the ‘rootkit’. A rootkit is a malicious software which is capable of having administrator-level access to a computer or network. The rootkit allows the hackers to take the control of a system without the user knowing it. This means that the rootkit is capable of executing files and changing system configurations on the target machine and much more which can be done only as the super user of the Linux machine.

Please note that scanning for rootkits will not stop all attacks, it is not an active defense. If your server has been compromised then a scan will not stop the rootkit.

Install chkrootkit

The following steps will help you to install chkrootkit on CentOS.

 
cd /usr/local/src
wget ftp://ftp.pangeia.com.br/pub/seg/pac/chkrootkit.tar.gz
tar xvf chkrootkit.tar.gz
cd chkrootkit-*
make sense

Now, you can run the chkrootkit to scan the server. Please note that the present working directory should be “/usr/local/src/chkrootkit-0.50”.

 
./chkrootkit

Daily scan report script

Create a file named scan.sh

 
vim /etc/cron.daily/chkrootkit.sh

 
#!/bin/bash
cd /usr/local/src/chkrootkit-*/ ; ./chkrootkit |grep -v not| /bin/mail -s 'CHROOTKIT Scan Result' your@email.com

Make it executable

 
chmod +x /etc/cron.daily/chkrootkit.sh

The script will email your daily scan report. Also, the above steps can also be used to install chkrootkit on cPanel server. Also, please keep this in mind that, using chkrootkit, you can’t remove and found 100% rootkits. You can secure your server from rootkits by ensuring that all applications and software are up-to-date and the system kept patched against all known vulnerabilities.

That’s it!

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