What is the purpose of alternate data streams?

Alternate Data Streams enables information to be hidden within other files. As such, it can be a security risk. An attacker can easily store malicious codes or payloads and use them to cause damages to your system.

Is it safe to delete alternate data streams?

If your detection utility doesn’t delete alternate data streams, you need to get creative. The great weakness of alternate data streams is that they’re only supported on NTFS. The older FAT filesystems don’t recognize ADS. If you copy a file from an NTFS drive to a FAT drive, any attached ADS will be eliminated.

What would an attacker use an alternate data stream on a Windows system for?

An attacker exploits the functionality of Microsoft NTFS Alternate Data Streams (ADS) to undermine system security. ADS can be used by an attacker or intruder to hide tools, scripts, and data from detection by normal system utilities. Many anti-virus programs do not check for or scan ADS.

Why alternate data streams are a concern in computer forensics?

Alternate Data Streams (ADS) is a virtually unknown compatibility feature of New Technology File System (NTFS) that can provide attackers with a method of hiding hacker tools, keyloggers, and so on, on a breached system and then will allow them execution without being detected.

What is alternate stream view?

Description. AlternateStreamView is a small utility that allows you to scan your NTFS drive, and find all hidden alternate streams stored in the file system.

Where is alternate data stream stored?

NTFS file system
Alternate Data Streams (ADS) are a file attribute only found on the NTFS file system. In this system a file is built up from a couple of attributes, one of them is $Data, aka the data attribute.

How do I get rid of alternate data streams?

Download Streams.exe tool from Microsoft and then unzip it. Open the streams folder and move streams app to the root directory of the partition where you want to delete the streams files. Run command “streams -d + host file path” This command will delete all ADS files lodged in the host file.

What are the different types of streams?

8 Different Types of Streams

Alluvial Fans. When a stream leaves an area that is relatively steep and enters one that is almost entirely flat, this is called an alluvial fan.
Braided Streams.
Deltas.
Ephemeral Streams.
Intermittent Streams.
Meandering Streams.
Perennial Streams.
Straight Channel Streams.

What is NTFS data streams?

NTFS file streams, also known as alternate data streams (ADS), are part of every file, as well as directories (folders), in a Windows NTFS volume. NTFS files and folders are comprised of attributes one of which is $Data. An application can use the Windows APIâ€™s to create additional named data streams.

How do I delete alternate data stream?

Where are alternate data streams located?

Alternate Data Streams (ADS) are a file attribute only found on the NTFS file system. In this system a file is built up from a couple of attributes, one of them is $Data, aka the data attribute. Looking at the regular data stream of a text file there is no mystery. It simply contains the text inside the text file.

What is a zone identifier?

What is a ZONE. IDENTIFIER file? File that contains metadata describing the security zones associated with another file; generated automatically when a file is downloaded from the Internet or received as an email attachment; often created by Internet Explorer.

What is an alternate data stream and how to use it?

An alternate Data Stream was effectively used to his the presence of malicious corrupting files, by squeezing it inside a legitimate file. By putting malware in the Alternate Data Stream, the Windows file would contain information and directions for the legitimate files, but also for the malicious file.

How to check which files have alternate data-streams in Linux?

In the example above we used the echo command to create an empty file called example with an alternate data stream called showme. By using streams we can check which files have alternate data-streams. In the results visible in the above command prompt, $Data is the name of the attribute (as discussed earlier) and the 8 tells us the size.

Is there a way to hide malware scripts in a file?

Unfortunately, yes! The amazingly clever Oddvar Moe has a great post on Alternate Data Streams, and how it can be used to hide malware scripts and executables in a file. ADS was Microsoft’s answer to supporting compatibility with Apple McIntosh’s file system.

What is antimalwarebytes anti-malware ads removal?

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware scans for and removes unwanted ADS (as Rootkit.ADS) Alternate Data Streams (ADS) have been given a bad reputation because their capability to hide data from us on our own computer, has been abused by malware writers in the past.