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ATI Driver Flaw Exposes Vista Kernel to Attackers
Shack0ption writes "An unpatched flaw in an ATI driver was at the center of the mysterious Purple Pill proof-of-concept tool that exposed a way to maliciously tamper with the Windows Vista kernel. The utility, released by Alex Ionescu and yanked an hour later after the kernel developer realized that the ATI driver flaw was not yet patched, provided an easy way to load unsigned drivers onto Vista — effectively defeating the new anti-rootkit/anti-DRM mechanism built into Microsoft's newest operating system. Ionescu confirmed his tool was exploiting a vulnerability in an ATI driver — atidsmxx.sys, version 3.0.502.0 — to patch the kernel to turn off certain checks for signed drivers. This meant that a malicious rootkit author could essentially piggyback on ATI's legitimately signed driver to tamper with the Vista kernel."
ok...
so windows vista trusts ATI.
ATI trusts themselves.
I don't trust no one, especially closed-source drivers from ATI.
shouldn't they simply replace their "fglrx" with "ati", in their xorg.conf?
Vista has an anti-DRM mechanism built-in? Wow, and I thought Linux stood for free sofware... way to go Redmond!
Where is that guy who'd die defending what I had to say when I need him?
if each driver had its own separate space, this flaw wouldn't affect the rest of the system.
When hardware drivers are responsible for system integrity, all hope of safety is permanently lost. Introducing the new battleground for virus writers... fake patches:
YOUR VIDEO CARD NEEDS NEW DRIVERS: CLICK NEXT!!!!!
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
The fact that people are actually going to the lengths of breaking into Windows by using a legitimate driver with kernel access to load in rootkits...the fact that it even requires explaining, means that Windows has reached some type of real security. I mean, with Windows 98, you would just hit enter on the login dialog box, and there you were!
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
Seems like the real concern is not that ATI's code opens a security hole. You know ATI will patch it. A more important question is, how many other securely-signed drivers, etc., have similar holes? How many drivers are there in a typical Windows Vista system, anyway?
At least Microsoft can say (with some truth) that it's not THEIR software which introduces the problem! (it actually is, of course, but not directly)
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Depends. A video driver needs to be able to DMA data to and from the card. Even if it's in an isolated address space, a compromised driver can write all over physical memory by telling the card to. If you have an IOMMU then this can be alleviated somewhat. Some kernel component outside the driver could provide DMA apertures in the correct places, and if it did correct validation of the driver's requests (i.e. not let it open windows anywhere into memory except where it is owned by a process using the driver) then it would be possible for a microkernel to be safe from this kind of thing.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Very quickly.
u rity/2100-1012_3-6032344.html
You must be new here, so I'll try and enlighten you.
You see, Microsoft is a lot like the smelly kid in 3rd grade that
used to drop a load in his shorts and not say anything while
everyone wandered around trying to figure out what died, where.
After a few of these episodes, whenever there was a strange smell,
it would come to pass that the smelly kid dropped another load.
Now, to make matters worse for the smelly kid, imagine him running
around telling everyone that he has solved the problem*. People are
relieved for a while until, guess what? The smelly kid drops another
load. How can this happen, isn't this supposed to be fixed?
This insane cycle of disappointment/re-assurance causes people to
get cynical very quickly and as a result, causes people to start complaining
very quickly.
[*] - http://news.com.com/Allchin+Buy+Vista+for+the+sec
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
From the article:
From the article:
For my part, I'm not going to play the blame game since I don't know better either way. I am, however, in some strange way comforted to see that Windows users are starting to have issues with ATI drivers, too.
All those years of trying to get fglrx to work, avenged!
So, is that what you call passive aggression?
weirdest thing I ever saw: scientology advertising on slashdot.
What does it matter? Neither of them bother with proper overlay any more.
My last nVidia card was simply without overlay hardware. My last ATi card's overlay dropped resolution when a high refresh rate was used. At least the nVidia card could play a video at full res without resorting to GL.
It's not all about the 3D...
You do have a point about the drivers, though. While closed, nVidia's Linux module hasn't provided nearly as much heartache as ATi's... abomination.
(BTW--I've been using Linux as my primary OS since 1996, so no I'm not Linux bashing)
Well, one thing to consider is this -- how different are other OSes like Linux? With Linux, a root exploit in a kernel module gains you access to the whole system as well, especially when you consider that it uses a monolithic kernel. IOW, kernel modules directly patch the Linux kernel, live, in memory. Now consider that the ATI drivers for Linux are based at least in part on the ATI drivers for Windows.
Mind you that some things like SELinux might help to mitigate some of this in some scenarios, but not in all.
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Actually I'm amazed it took almost a year. I would've betted my annual income that something like this would surface before May.
Let's take a look at the inner workings of the system. Yes, MS has full access to the source code, so their drivers will probably not leak. They also have no "real" competition on the OS market (yes, there's Linux, there's MacOS, but what company would switch?). They can take their time to proof and perfect their drivers until you can be certain that they don't leak.
Do third party vendors have the source? No. Do they have tight schedules and competition breathing down their neck? You bet. Will they prefer performance or security? Well, what of those two is tested on pages like THG?
Worse yet, what if such a driver actually allows a user to "crack open" his system and use it as he pleases? Could you see people buy a cheap ATI card just for the purpose of disabling the DRM? I mean, there have been really, really crappy games for some consoles that sold surprisingly well, because they contained a bug that allowed disabling certain security measures. Save-game exploits were quite popular for a while.
Could you see that this "security" bug could actually be a selling argument FOR the hardware rather than against it?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Each of those probably stands a 50-50 chance of being either rooted or patched with the new key the first time it's connected to the 'net.
It's a local exploit.
did I mention that finding another bug in another driver signed with the new key will mean the whole process must be repeated?
Third parties write crap, exploitable code and it's MS's fault? You can write exploitable kernel modules for Linux as well, yet somehow I don't think you'd be blaming that on Linus. If anything, this is an argument for open source drivers, not against MS's scheme - although how many people actually have the skill to audit the code they run, let alone auditing it?
did I mention that if someone finds such a bug and sits on it, they have root to any Vista system in existence
Every Vista install that uses the exploitable driver, you mean. Just as an exploitable driver for Linux would open every Linux install that uses that driver. For example, I have an NVidia card; as and when I upgrade to Vista, I won't be vulnerable to this particular exploit.
Try to tone the hyperbole down a little, it's not very becoming.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
Oops, I guess not....
8 .html
Because WPF is largely written in managed code on the common language runtime, it never ran in kernel mode. There are elements of WPF (called the MIL) that are written in unmanaged code, but that code also largely runs (and always has run) in user mode. Insofar as WPF needs to touch kernel mode stuff (e.g., drivers), it interacts with them through the existing DirectX APIs. The user mode and kernel mode aspects of the WPF architecture haven't changed.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051216-578
So what did Microsoft gain with the Vista GDI changes?
Enjoy,
It's just the normal noises in here.
Now, seriously, what's "purple pill"?
Malicious to whom? This systems seems designed more to prevent the installation of kernel-mode drivers that would allow the circumvention of things like DRM. I guess it could stop the installation of rootkits too, but there are other ways to stop them. It's funny (to me at least) that there are things that Windows can stop even an Administrator from doing on their own machine.
http://www.mhall119.com
1. It is important to use the correct names for things. The word "terrorist" is subset of "criminal". My working definition of 'terrorist', which can doubtless be improved on, is: one who uses violence to create terror or panic within a populace in order to achieve political ends. Without the political component, a terrorist is simply a criminal guilty of assault, murder, theft, etc. and should be caught and prosecuted accordingly. By using this term incorrectly, you are just as guilty of spreading FUD as the U.S. government. While this may be an effective way to get attention, it is alarmist, unethical, and immoral.
By expanding the meaning of the term, the government has been able to greatly expand its power at the expense of its citizens. It certainly is important to catch and prosecute cyber-criminals, but discuss it rationally and pass appropriate, targeted laws to deal with the problem. More importantly, enforce the ones that already exist.
2. In most cases, a non-anonymous network would probably be fine, as long as encryption was used to keep data private. Unfortunately, we live in a world where, in some places, using encryption will get you tossed in jail, regardless of the content. In other words, it can be important to hide not only what you sent, but the fact that you sent it. A concrete example would be blogging in China. Given recent events with the NSA, I wouldn't be surprised if the U.S. government starts to take a more active role in discouraging personal strong encryption. How do we solve that problem?
3. Guantanamo is one of the worst violations of human rights in recent history. Even the basest criminals are entitled to due process. That's what makes our system justice and not revenge. The United States is NOT the world police. There is a process to be followed to enforce change in other countries. The lack of serious international backing is part of our problem in Iraq. The U.S., despite being the last world superpower, does not have the resources to fight every battle and prosecute every crime that other countries won't deal with.
You are right that we need effective computer crime laws and effective enforcement of them. The way to do it is to lobby other countries for this and establish treaties with them. Use diplomacy and sanctions where necessary. It isn't impossible; if we can get intellectual property laws perverted across the globe, surely we can expend the effort needed to reach cyber-criminals where ever they choose to hide.
4. The government is supposed to work for us, but it needs watching. One of the most important lessons of modern history is that we have to be active and mistrustful of government, in order for it to function correctly. The Bay of Pigs was the first warning and the Watergate scandal made this manifest. The Iraq war, NSA wiretapping, and the PATRIOT Act are examples of what happens when we fail to perform our role of government watchdog. I'm not going to trust the government on who the bad guys are. I want the FBI, the CIA, Interpol, etc. to gather evidence and arrest criminals and bring them before the appropriate judicial authority and prove their case before the public.
You are correct that this is a serious international problem and needs serious international intervention, but it also has to be done right.
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http://www.mhall119.com