Wednesday, February 14th 2007
Windows Vista has large security hole in UAC
When Microsoft shipped Windows Vista, they bragged about how secure it was, showing off the User Access Control (UAC) feature. UAC is something that asks a user if they really want it to run a program before simply running it (previous versions of Windows would simply run the program). "Hackette" Joanna Rutkowska found a disturbing loophole through UAC. Apparently, UAC works by running everything as an administrator, and simply asking for confirmation before executing a program. So if something like a game installer triggered off UAC, and a user hit "allow", the program could theoretically be allowed to run a bunch of other things that would individually require administrator privileges. When dealing with things like simple registry changes this is no problem, but when malware is piggybacking in an installer....this effectively ushers in the next generation of Trojan horse viruses. Microsoft does not consider this a serious threat, and thinks of it more like a minor weakness, which is the result of a "design choice".
Source:
The Inquirer
15 Comments on Windows Vista has large security hole in UAC
This would be a change in how the registry works... quite a task... but actually a very smart move.
and the amont of times ive had someones pc to fix and thought id start up internet explorer and theres like 3-4 different toolbars, one under the other (taking up half the bloody screen) (not too mention being able to browse all the naughty sites they have visited :laugh: clean your goddam browsers people or dont vist pr0n sites :p)
imo windows should make a dummed down version :laugh: for 50% home users (ie: preinstalled with a decent firewall, av, spyware and warn the user not to install all the shit there going to because its "free" :slap: )lol cause its people like them who give the hackers the satisfaction they crave, i never have a problem with virii/spyware/trojans etc cause i know what im doing
Oh yeah and I don't use firewalls, common sense and a router do everything a software firewall would do :).
Point-blank: When you assign that registry pathway SYSTEM users, w/ FULL CONTROL rights, OR Administrator users, w/ FULL CONTROL rights?
She's right - in that even 'safe installers' CAN/COULD deliver ANYTHING it wants, & I don't care if you use .msi installers, installshield, or what...
(& I'd wager it's the exact same in VISTA, that same pathway exists, w/ same user rights assigned to it)
Same w/ your filesystems, they can write anything they'd like.
Add to that, the fact they have an internal 'stamp' (probably in the Win32 Portable Executable Header) which marks them as running as Admin users, by "association"? Well, you get, what you get. Installers have to change as well, imo, yet again also.
APK
P.S.=> UAC doesn't do a thing to stall that apparently, how can it? Check you registry permissions there, you'll see what I mean...
theinvisiblethings.blogspot.com/2007/02/running-vista-every-day.html
"One thing that I found particularly annoying though, is that Vista automatically assumes that all setup programs (application installers) should be run with administrator privileges. So, when you try to run such a program, you get a UAC prompt and you have only two choices: either to agree to run this application as administrator or to disallow running it at all. That means that if you downloaded some freeware Tetris game, you will have to run its installer as administrator, giving it not only full access to all your file system and registry, but also allowing e.g. to load kernel drivers! Why Tetris installer should be allowed to load kernel drivers?"
VISTA security, nice as it is & it IS an improvement on its forebears in many ways, does have a "hole" there, you either install as administrator user, (OR don't install your program, yea, right: IF YOU WANT TO USE IT, you'll install it, the point of running one IS that) & the installer technically CAN do what ADMIN users can @ that point... where you the user can't for many things!)
There is currently, NO SANDBOX FOR INSTALLERS in other words, & they too, need to change it seems to fit the VISTA security model... apk