oyi77/1ai-skills/analyzing-bootkit-and-rootkit-samples

Analyzing Bootkit And Rootkit Samples

Overview

Cybersecurity skill for analyzing bootkit and rootkit samples. Follows industry best practices and security standards.

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "analyzing bootkit and rootkit samples"
• "Analyzes bootkit and advanced rootkit malware that infects the Master Boot Recor"

• A system shows signs of compromise that persist through OS reinstallation
• Antivirus and EDR are unable to detect malware despite clear evidence of compromise
• UEFI Secure Boot has been disabled or shows integrity violations
• Memory forensics reveals rootkit behavior (hidden processes, hooked system calls)
• Investigating nation-state level threats known to deploy bootkits (APT28, APT41, Equation Group)

Do not use for standard user-mode malware; bootkits and rootkits operate at a fundamentally different level requiring specialized analysis techniques.

When NOT to Use

• When you lack proper authorization for testing
• For production systems without change management
• When the task requires legal or compliance expertise beyond technical scope

Prerequisites

• Disk imaging tools (dd, FTK Imager) for acquiring MBR/VBR sectors
• UEFITool for UEFI firmware volume analysis and module extraction
• chipsec for hardware-level firmware security assessment
• Ghidra with x86 real-mode and 16-bit support for MBR code analysis
• Volatility 3 for kernel-level rootkit artifact detection
• Bootable Linux live USB for offline system analysis

Workflow

# Example: IOC detection
import re
IOC_PATTERNS = {
    "ip": r"\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b",
    "domain": r"\b[a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,}\b",
    "hash_md5": r"\b[a-f0-9]{32}\b",
    "hash_sha256": r"\b[a-f0-9]{64}\b",
}
def extract_iocs(text: str) -> dict:
    return {k: re.findall(v, text) for k, v in IOC_PATTERNS.items()}

1. Scope the Analysis — Define what bootkit and rootkit samples artifacts or data sources to examine and the investigation timeline.
2. Preserve Evidence — Create forensic copies of relevant data. Maintain chain of custody documentation.
3. Extract Key Indicators — Parse and extract relevant bootkit and rootkit samples data points from collected artifacts.
4. Correlate Findings — Cross-reference extracted data with other sources (threat intel, logs, timelines).
5. Build Timeline — Construct a chronological sequence of events related to bootkit and rootkit samples.
6. Document Analysis — Write findings report with evidence, conclusions, and recommendations.

Tools

• Forensic Toolkit — Evidence collection and analysis
• Timeline Tools — Chronological event reconstruction
• Log Analysis Platform — Centralized log parsing and search

Process

1. Scope — Define research questions, identify data sources, set time boundaries
2. Gather — Collect data from primary sources, APIs, and public records
3. Synthesize — Analyze findings, identify patterns, produce actionable report

Verification

• [ ] All bootkit and rootkit samples procedures executed completely and documented
• [ ] Findings validated against multiple data sources
• [ ] False positives identified and filtered
• [ ] Results documented with evidence and timestamps
• [ ] Recommendations provided with risk-based prioritization

Anti-Rationalization Table