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."

Comments

Crappy AMD drivers?!

[LingNoi]

This isn't very surprising AMD/ATI have always had crappy drivers. I wish their fan base would stop apologising for them and demand AMD put more effort into their products.

Re:Crappy AMD drivers?!

[LingNoi]

I never mentioned Nvidia, it's also completely irrelevant as AMD drivers will suck regardless of what Nvidia does.

Re:Crappy AMD drivers?!

[Mitchell314]

Linux sucks, it just happens that everything else is even worse. :D

Re:Crappy AMD drivers?!

[Skarecrow77]

crying about fanboys while running around fanboying. typical.

all fanboys suck. end of story. mint vs ubuntu, google vs apple, nintendo vs sega, fuckin coke vs pepsi... if you're on one side of an arguement, and you can't see the cons of your own side as well as the pros of the other side, you don't really understand the arguement and you shouldn't be speaking.

Re:Crappy AMD drivers?!

[Skarecrow77]

depends on your definition of failure.

if gnu/linux was aiming to become the predominant desktop OS, displacing microsoft, then it certainly has failed

if gnu/linux was aiming to beocme a major player in the arena, maybe not the overall leader but boasting enough of a market percentage that it couldn't be successfully ignored or neglected by software devlopers and hardware OEMs, then yeah... it's probably failing at that too.

if gnu/linux was aiming to become a viable alternative to the market leaders for people who care about free software and people who care about being in full control of their own OS, well it has become a rousing success at that.

AOD

[Kjella]

Acronym Overload Detected. A summary is supposed to summarize but I couldn't tell what this story is about unless I already know.

Re:AOD

[Obfuscant]

Notice that the first reference to ASLR in the summary is actually a link to Wikipedia.

And the reference to EMET is a link to a microsoft page that has at the top this warning:

This article applies to a different operating system than the one you are using. Article content that may not be relevant to you is disabled.

I'm reading this on a linux system, but I manage several windows boxes. It's very useful for microsoft to refuse to diplay content it decides I don't need to see. Thank you.

ASLR

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Preventing yesterday's attacks, tomorrow.

Re:ASLR

[osu-neko]

Given that "yesterday's attacks" compromise 99% of the attacks that occur every day, that seems wise.

MS should just deny them WHQL certification

[PingXao]

Microsoft is constantly telling people that they won't sign their drivers unless they pass strict quality and certification standards. MS should just deny that to drivers as buggy as these are reported to be.

Oh wait... that would mean MS Is actually committed to quality as opposed to just needing an excuse to deny the little guy who wants to write some driver-level code.

Re:But it still showed you the article content!

[drinkypoo]

1) Don't start your post in the subject line, that is fucking annoying. Are you new?
2) What do you mean "the" article content? He doesn't know which content it showed him, and neither do you. But I notice you're anonymous and cowardly, so you're probably a shill as well.