Remediating malware infections through obfuscation

Abstract

A computer has a storage device that is infected with malicious software (malware). The malware uses stealth or rootkit techniques to hide itself in the storage device. A security module within the storage device detects the malware by comparing the files read from the storage device to those reported by the operating system. Upon detecting the malware, the security module prepares the computer for malware obfuscation by storing information describing the location of the malware, deploying an executable file, and configuring it to run on reboot. The executable file executes upon reboot and locates the data on the storage device associated with the malware. The executable file obfuscates the data so that the malware no longer loads at boot time, thereby disabling the rootkit technique. The computer reboots and the security module remediates the malware infection.