File integrity monitoring tools: Issues, challenges, and solutions

Abstract

SummaryEnsuring integrity of sensitive files in file systems is imperative to computer systems. The vast majority of attacks work through unapproved or unauthorized access to sensitive files to take secret data like secret keys, passwords, credit card numbers, and so on. After that, attackers generally conceal their traces by subverting critical files like system logs. File system integrity monitoring is a well‐known way to deal with ensuring integrity of sensitive and critical files. The file system is at the heart of any computing system as it stores the data and executable programs. Malicious users or malwares might change the content of a sensitive data file or insert malicious payload in an executable. Hence, monitoring the integrity of the files in the file system is of utmost importance. Significant research work has been done on file integrity monitoring tools. This article presents the currently available tools for file integrity monitoring and their underlying approaches.