Taking a lesson from stealthy rootkits

The techniques used by the developers to use rootkits and obfuscation approaches to build more quick, less-vulnerable software, are discussed. Obfuscation transforms software into an identically functioning - but unreadable - form, implemented in a high-level programming language, or, to some extent, in the compiled binary. A rootkit is a set of software tool that lets an attacker hide processes, files, and network connections. The experts view the increased integrated use of these approaches with the increase in the popularity of executable and linkable (ELF) parasitic and runtime viruses, mobile agents and Unix e-commerce software.