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Windows 8 and Later Fail To Properly Apply ASLR (bleepingcomputer.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and subsequent Windows 10 variations fail to properly apply ASLR, rendering this crucial Windows security feature useless. The bug appeared when Microsoft changed a registry value in Windows 8 and occurs only in certain ASLR configuration modes. Basically, if users have enabled system-wide ASLR protection turned on, a bug in ASLR's implementation on Windows 8 and later will not generate enough entropy (random data) to start application binaries in random memory locations. For ASLR to work properly, users must configure it to work in a system-wide bottom-up mode. An official patch from Microsoft is not available yet, but a registry hack can be applied to make sure ASLR starts in the correct mode.

The bug was discovered by CERT vulnerability analyst Will Dormann while investigating a 17-years-old bug in the Microsoft Office equation editor, to which Microsoft appears to have lost the source code and needed to patch it manually.

2 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Summary fail by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because the "editors" are lazy fucks. Been that way since 1999.

    Apparently it is too much "work" to spell out an acronym the first time it is used.

  2. Re:Summary fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    WTF is WTF.