SanityCheck

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BoraMurdar

Community Manager
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Aug 30, 2012
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SanityCheck provides you with a thorough rootkit and malware detection tool that will scan through your entire system looking for the tell tale behavior of malware and rootkits.

sanity_screen.jpg


This program does a thorough check on your system to look for irregularities which are typically the work of rootkits, viruses and other malware. This software goes to great lengths to check your system for hidden processes, hidden drivers, hidden threads and detects many different types of hooks, hacks and hijacks.

Note that certain irregularities may be the work of antivirus or another security product that you have installed. This is because security software itself often makes use of the same controversial techniques which are normally associated with malware. This is why it is recommended to first disable all antivirus, antispyware, firewall and other security software which may be running on your system.

In case any irregularities are found SanityCheck will attempt to find a responsible process or module and offer suggestions on how to proceed in the investigation.

SanityCheck works to detect:

  • Hidden processes
  • Processes with spoofed names
  • Processes attempting to appear as standard Windows processes
  • Processes with obviously deceptive names
  • Processes without product, company and description information
  • Valid signatures in processes and kernel modules
  • Intercepted system services and the modules responsible
  • Intercepted kernel routines and the modules responsible
  • Intercepted kernel object callout routines and the modules responsible
  • Drivers with intercepted dispatch entry points
Currently SanityCheck offers the following features:


Runs on almost all Windows versions


SanityCheck runs on most recent Windows versions including Windows 7, Windows8, Windows Vista and Windows XP. For an exact overview of the Windows versions supported by SanityCheck and the service packs required click here.


Makes use of special deep inventory techniques


SanityCheck makes use of a special Windows feature (a GlobalFlag setting) which allows it to create a deep inventory of drivers, devices, processes, threads and a lot of other information about your system. By making use of this feature in combination with other techniques it is able to create a very thorough scan of irregularities on your system.


Detect hidden processes


SanityCheck goes to incredible lengths to detect processes which hide themselves from the Windows taskmanager and programming interfaces. It uses seven unmentioned safe techniques to reveal hidden processes in both usermode and kernelmode.


Detect obfuscated processes


Sanity Check detects processes which do efforts to obfuscate their names. This is a typical activity associated with malware.


Detect processes attempting to appear as common system processes


Sanity Check detects for processes which appear as a standard Windows process.


Detect processes with obviously deceptive names


Malicious processes which are received as email attachements often try to appear as an innocent document types. An example of such a process name is:
"foo.txt .exe"


Detect processes without product, company or description information


Although not necessarily evil, SanityCheck checks for processes without a product, company or description resource information.


Verify signatures and checksums of processes and kernel modules


Sanitycheck verifies digital signatures on processes and kernel modules and checks them for validity. It also verifies the validity of checksums.


Detect SSDT hooks


SanityCheck detects kernel modules which hook the system service descriptor table. Although not necessarily the work of malware, SanityCheck will do every effort to detect the modules responsbile for these acts and generate a comprehensible report.


Detect Import Address Table hooks


The program detects kernel modules which hook the entry points of exported kernel routines.


Detect kernel object callout hooks


Although rarely used, kernel object callout hooks are incredibly powerful and have the potential to instrument the complete working of the Windows kernel. Currently we do not know of any security product which detects these hooks.


Detect hidden drivers


SanityCheck detects various forms of kernel modules which are attempting to hide.


Detect hijacked driver entry points


Hijacked dispatch entry points in drivers can be used by rootkits and malware for a wide variety of purposes. SanityCheck detects both drivers which have their entry points hooked as well as the modules reponsible for these actions.


Find the culprit


Note that it is not always possible to make a clear distinction between malware and legitimate products. This is because certain products resort to aggressive controversial techniques as anti-piracy measures, to avoid debugging or even for anti-competitive purposes. Anitivirus or other security software that is installed on your system may be making use of rootkit-like techniques such as a hidden process in an effort to hide itself from malware. Such products may be involved in a controversial race along the lines of "defeat evil with its own weapons".

For this reason SanityCheck does everything possible to pinpoint the modules and processes which are responsbile for these actions while remaining careful in drawing any conclusions.


Comprehensible report


We do not believe in aggressively "fixing" malware with a single click of a button. This is because there is no such thing as a clear distinction line between malware and legitimate products which make of controversial techniques. "Fixing" hooks in the kernel is a very unsafe and despicable act which is only very likely to make your system crash or worse. Instead Sanitycheck leaves your system in an unaltered state while offering comprehensible suggestions on how to proceed in any situation.


Optional expert mode


Optionally you can switch SanityCheck into expert mode. It will then display a wealth of information on drivers, devices, processes, threads, kernel objects and system routines which can be very useful for further analysis. A lot of the information available in expert mode cannot be obtained by any other existing utility other than a kernel debugger. Because the amount of information can be overwhelming and may be difficult to understand for novice users, it is turned off by default and only a comprehensible report is displayed.

Download link => http://www.resplendence.com/download/sanitySetup.exe
 
H

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Thanks @BoraMurdar ... it has been a long time since I took a gander at the Resplendence website.

I find the name, SanityCheck, rather ironic... in that analyzing its reports can drive a user insane.
 
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