The majority of Post #42 is true, except for a few things.
Just because some topics on this Forum are over ones head and they can not make sense of them, does not mean that it should be degraded and passed off as an joke, there are people on this Forum that fully understand the Subjects of the Topics and want to learn more and provide others with their knowledge of the Subjects as well.....yes there is quite a bit of BSing going on here and there, but I for one am here to try to give and provide honest Help and Advice.....and I know there are more people being genuine in Honesty than not.....
Performing an standard Disk Format and Reinstall of the Operating System will render common infections incompatible, but not all Rootkits and its accompanying payload of malware.....Rootkits work from outside the Operating System and can hide in Bad Sectors of the Hard Disk thus have places to hide on the Hard Disk that are essentially outside the Operating Systems environment, untouchable by it, yet still at hand.....
Most wiping, erasing, formatting, and partitioning tools will not overwrite logical bad sectors on the Disk, leaving the Rootkits and their accompanying payload of malware behind and still active..... Rootkits in themselves are not an threat.....the danger is that Rootkits have the invincible power of Stealth.....Malicious Programmers can hide their malware safely inside the protection of the Rootkit.....
Rootkits reside in the Root of things, thus the name 'Root' that service as an protective container for the accompanying payload of malware, or on the bright side, the accompanying payload of Software Code with productive, safe intentions, together they are an 'KIT'.....thus the name 'ROOTKIT'.....and Rootkits are not an joke.....
Once the Computer is compromised by an Rootkit with its accompanying payload of malware, all files in the System can not be trusted and are likely infected.....this includes all the System files, Software, backups, removable disks, and restore points..... Rootkits can not only hide themselves in Bad Sectors of Hard Disks, they can also hide themselves in the Boot Sectors of Hard Disks, CD/DVD, and Floppy Disks..... Rootkits can also hide in the Firmware of Hardware Components, in the BIOS, Motherboard, Video-card EEPROM or Alternate Data Streams.....
Rootkits hide their processes, files, and folders by using sophisticated hooking and filtering techniques. As a result, traditional methods of viewing the system state typically return no indication of foul play.....the Rootkit makes sure of that. When an Rootkit is cloaked, system utilities such as Task Manager, Regedit, will not be able to expose the processes and Registry data that should betray the presence of the Rootkit. The lurking Rootkit files will not be viewable in Windows Explorer or even via the command line.....The Rootkit needs to be uncloaked, in return the Malware Components it was hiding become uncloaked as well.....
Removing an Rootkit is an two step process:
1). Uncloaking and removing the Rootkit.....this step involves using special Software tools that can find the Rootkit and remove it.2). Removing the malware payload associated with the Rootkit.....this step normally uses conventional security programs such as Anti-Virus, Anti-Trojan, and Anti-Spyware scanners. This step may also involve manual deletion of some stubborn Rootkit components.
Some helpful tools to help detect and remove Rootkits are: RootkitRevealer by Microsoft, Rootkit_Detective by McAfee, BlackLight by F-Secure, UnHackMe by Greatis, AVG Anti-rootkit by Grisoft to name a few.....
-drdos