Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Newly-Found Windows Bug Affects All Versions Since NT

Posted by Soulskill on from the staying-power dept.

garg0yle writes "A researcher has found a security bug that could allow privilege escalation in Windows. Nothing new there, right? Well, this affects the Virtual DOS Machine, found in every 32-bit version of Windows all the way back to Windows NT. That's 17 years worth of Windows and counting. 'Using code written for the VDM, an unprivileged user can inject code of his choosing directly into the system's kernel, making it possible to make changes to highly sensitive parts of the operating system. ... The vulnerability exists in all 32-bit versions of Microsoft OSes released since 1993, and proof-of-concept code works on the XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008, and 7 versions of Windows, Ormandy reported.'"

3 of 393 comments (clear)

  1. How do we know it's not already in use? by jollyreaper · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Every time I read about one of these long-undiscovered instant pwn bugs, I always have to wonder if there's someone sitting deep underground in an NSA computer center saying "Well shit, looks like we'll not be using that exploit anymore."

    Is this a hole nobody knew about or a hole nobody but the people who knew about it knew about, and those people weren't talking?

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
    1. Re:How do we know it's not already in use? by Skratchez · · Score: 5, Interesting

      My first thoughts exactly. I've always assumed any Windows PC I'm using could have been rooted long ago to an extent that no security tool could detect or repair it. I guess I'm just paranoid, I should really just switch to a Linux distro and start compiling my own kernels. As if I wouldn't screw that up too.

    2. Re:How do we know it's not already in use? by think_nix · · Score: 5, Interesting

      funny how the security researcher (TFA) works at google , and now with the google china scenario this bug is now getting press when it was reported back in june 2009 , and still has not been fixed.
      Wonder if all these new MS & IE bugs exploits being made known through google are due to lack of solidarity on some issues between google / ms ?