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Tricking Vista's UAC To Hide Malware

Posted by kdawson on from the protective-coloration dept.

Vista's User Account Control, love it or hate it, represents a barrier against unwanted software getting run on users' computers. A Symantec researcher has found a simple way to spoof UAC and says that it shouldn't be completely trusted. The trick is to disguise the UAC warning dialog in the color associated with alerts generated by Windows itself.

4 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. I didn't think it was that difficult by hackstraw · · Score: 0, Troll


    From what I understand, the UAC thing comes up all the time (even copying and pasting?!?!), so people just will ignore it and say allow all the time. Also, I read here on slashdot that UAC didn't ask anything when installing software, so there is the best backdoor already put into the OS as a design decision.

    Its really sad that people believe that Windows == computers. It will take a decade for people to get over the PTSD once another system becomes available to the general public.

  2. Re:Different colors?? by kingturkey · · Score: 1, Troll

    Having to click through 3 different prompts in order to delete a file was enough for me to disable UAC. It lasted about 2 days on my computer.

  3. I surprised you saw UAC at all. by twitter · · Score: 0, Troll

    I've been using Vista for a month. There were color differences?

    As people have noticed, M$ has made UAC such a psychotic pain that no one is going to use it. They are all going to be running as root all the time. People have also speculated that this is so M$ can blame the user later. Vista is going to have the same kind of four minute half life on any network as XP did, regardless of market share, and no user action will be required.

    The problems the current article points out are just icing on the cake and will always exist for a non free OS. Users are forced to trust software companies that don't trust each other and despise the user. These companies refuse to co-operate and frequently sabotage each other to gratify themselves. The net result is systems crawling with easily exploited ad, spy and malware. Community inspected free software, like Debian, is the only kind of software users will ever be able to trust.

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    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

  4. Re:No tricking involved by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 0, Troll

    "MS hires the worst UI people on the planet"

    Wait, I thought Vista stole it's UI from OS X, which supposedly has the best UI on the planet. Hmmm...

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    "But this one goes to 11!"