How To Install rkhunter on CentOS 8

rkhunter is A host-based tool to scan for rootkits, backdoors and local exploits

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install rkhunter on CentOS 8.

What is rkhunter

Rootkit Hunter (RKH) is an easy-to-use tool which checks computers running UNIX (clones) for the presence of rootkits and other unwanted tools.

We can use yum or dnf to install rkhunter on CentOS 8. In this tutorial we discuss both methods but you only need to choose one of method to install rkhunter.

Install rkhunter on CentOS 8 Using dnf

Update yum database with dnf using the following command.

sudo dnf makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install rkhunter using dnf by running the following command:

sudo dnf -y install rkhunter

Install rkhunter on CentOS 8 Using yum

Update yum database with yum using the following command.

sudo yum makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install rkhunter using yum by running the following command:

sudo yum -y install rkhunter

How To Uninstall rkhunter on CentOS 8

To uninstall only the rkhunter package we can use the following command:

sudo dnf remove rkhunter

rkhunter Package Contents on CentOS 8

/etc/cron.daily/rkhunter
/etc/logrotate.d/rkhunter
/etc/rkhunter.conf
/etc/sysconfig/rkhunter
/usr/bin/rkhunter
/usr/share/doc/rkhunter
/usr/share/doc/rkhunter/CHANGELOG
/usr/share/doc/rkhunter/LICENSE
/usr/share/doc/rkhunter/README
/usr/share/man/man8/rkhunter.8.gz
/usr/share/rkhunter
/usr/share/rkhunter/scripts
/usr/share/rkhunter/scripts/check_modules.pl
/var/lib/rkhunter
/var/lib/rkhunter/db
/var/lib/rkhunter/db/backdoorports.dat
/var/lib/rkhunter/db/i18n
/var/lib/rkhunter/db/i18n/cn
/var/lib/rkhunter/db/i18n/en
/var/lib/rkhunter/db/mirrors.dat
/var/lib/rkhunter/db/programs_bad.dat
/var/log/rkhunter

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install rkhunter on CentOS 8 using yum and dnf.