> provides a nifty way (once the attacker has gained root rights on the machine) to create a little backdoor to regain root access when the original access no longer works

so it does imply it needs root rights

but it's an example of why it's a bad idea to "cleanup" a system from a virus without a full reinstall

it also matters for other reasons, as some ways to gain root are unreliable and don't persist reboot and you don't want to hide that you have root access