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Vista Hacking Challenge Answered

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the still-some-work-to-be-done dept.

debiansid writes "Microsoft's most secure Operating System yet has been compromised at the Black Hat hacker conference. We all know that Andrew Cushman, Microsoft's director of security outreach invited the Black Hats over to touch and feel Vista in order to showcase the superiority of this OS. Joanna Rutkowska, from Coseinc, a Singapore-based security firm, obliged and showed how it is possible to bypass security measures in Vista that prevents unsigned code from running with the help of a little software she calls the 'Blue Pill.'" To be fair, the hack was possible only when the target is in administrator mode rather than a limited user account.

4 of 388 comments (clear)

  1. Only works as an administrator but... by mcguiver · · Score: 5, Insightful

    show me the average home user who doesn't runs XP as administrator. Do they think that anything is going to change for Vista?

    1. Re:Only works as an administrator but... by tcc3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Legacy apps my ass. I've seen plenty of new, professional grade software that is hamstrung by user level permissions. Sometimes Power User wont even satisy. Sloppy development is a big problem.

      You shouldnt be allowed to say "NT/2k/Xp compatible" if your software cant correctly handle user permissions.

  2. To be fair to MS by walnutmon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This article is a little slanted towards, "MS said you can't get into their OP, and black hats said, 'bitch please!'". But really, MS probably expected this, and was hoping that they could learn something from watching a collection of hackers test their system. The more problems that are caught now, the less when it is released.

    Microsoft doesn't care about impressing Linux users, they care about releasing something that A LOT of normal users can install and forget about. Every iteration they get more stuff right, and their operating system becomes better (except ME, that sucked dick).

    --
    You take it, I don't want it...
  3. Re:Would they tell anyway? by rifftide · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now this is really cynical - but they may have planned it this way. It looks like Vista may blow by even the latest (January 2007) deadline to resolve a raft of useability bugs, and this gives them the perfect cover to extend the ship date without looking totally inept. "We were ready to RTM at the end of 2006 but some late-breaking vulnerabilities were discovered, and we decided we couldn't take chances with the security of our customers' systems."

    This is not just a matter of losing face. If the Windows team blows the revised date by several months (say April or later) AND it ships what is considered to be a lackluster product, many people will start considering the Windows codebase as a sustaining mode project. They will assume that Microsoft is busy preparing a brand new code base (based on FreeBSD plus .NET and DirectX, let's say) to debut five years from now, and will work out a transition plan for Win32 apps. Windows will be a lame duck in the minds of both customers and MS engineers. Alternatives will be sought.