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AMD/ATI Video Drivers: Unsafe At Any Speed
An anonymous reader writes "CERT/CC has called out AMD for having insecure video drivers. AMD/ATI video drivers are incompatible with system-wide ASLR. 'Always On' DEP combined with 'Always On' ASLR are effective exploit mitigations. However, most people don't know about 'Always On' ASLR since Microsoft had to hide it from EMET with an 'EnableUnsafeSettings' registry key — because AMD/ATI video drivers will cause a BSOD on boot if 'Always On' ASLR is enabled."
aslr = a way to secure your memory so it's harder for malware to run attacks.
EMET = a bunch of tools that windows uses to secure the machine. aslr is one of these tools
bsod = blue screen of death. your computer is frozen
AMD = a company that was formerly known for making computer chips, but is now in the graphics card business
ATI = a graphics card manufacturer that AMD bought.
DEP = another tool in the EMET toolkit.
cert/cc = an organization that is viewed as an authority on computer stuff.
in short, AMD drivers suck so much that microsoft has to override its own computer protections to keep AMD from crashing your machine. so the drivers are not just unstable, they make your machine more vulnerable to malware. cert says, "epic fail".
Better to prevent yesterday's attacks at all than to leave the hole open for all time...