Linux on Windows Exposes a New Attack Surface (eweek.com)

An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: The Linux in Windows 10 isn't running inside of a hypervisor; it's "running on the raw hardware, getting all the benefits of performance and system access, as well as expanding the potential attack surface." eWeek reports on a new threat discovered by Alex Ionescu, the chief architect at cybersecurity company Crowdstrike, which begins with the fact that "The Windows file system is also mapped to Linux, such that Linux will get access to the same files and directories."

Ionescu says "There are a number of ways that Windows applications could inject code, modify memory and add new threats to a Linux application running on Windows." According to eWeek, "The modified Linux code in turn could then call Windows APIs and get access to system calls to perform malicious actions that might not be mitigated." Ionescu describes it as "a two-headed beast that can do a little Linux and can also be used to attack the Windows side of the system."

Comments

*yawn*

[jargonburn]

The Server Application in Windows 10 isn't running inside of a hypervisor; it's "running on the OS, getting all the benefits of performance and system access, as well as expanding the potential attack surface." eWeek reports on a new threat discovered by Alex Ionescu, the chief architect at cybersecurity company Crowdstrike, which begins with the fact that "The Windows file system is also mapped to the Server Application, such that the Server Application will get access to [...] files and directories."

Ionescu says "There are a number of ways that Windows applications could inject code, modify memory and add new threats to the Server Application running on Windows." According to eWeek, "The modified Server Application code in turn could then call Windows APIs and get access to system calls to perform malicious actions that might not be mitigated."

I'll Tell you what else increase your attack surface: Turning the computer on.
Didn't RTFA (naturally!), but the summary fails to convince me that this is more than incrementally worse than running...well...MOST applications that do anything useful on Windows.