Summary: Windows security still broken, judging by Pwn2Own

WINDOWS is not doing terribly well. The margins are low and Microsoft relies on bundling alone (which requires a hardware buying spree). Looking at the past week's news, there was one headline alone with "Vista" in it and just 5 clusters of headlines about "Windows 7", 1 of which was a whitepaper.

Vista 7 is hardly mentioned these days, except for occasional complaints or PR fluff. Microsoft continues to improperly count "sales" and we have already explained how Microsoft fakes these to achieve an illusion of success. In many ways, Vista 7 is just Vista, but it looks a little different (notably the new deskbar). "Well the initial impression is how much it looks like Vista," said Microsoft's booster Jack Schofield about Vista 7, "Which I think is…uh…the thing I’m not supposed to say."

In previous posts we showed that Vista 7 is considered worse when it come to security than its predecessor, Windows Vista. To name some posts on the subject:

• Trend Micro: Vista 7 Less Secure Than Vista
• Vista 7 Less Secure Than Predecessors? Remote BSoD Now Possible!
• Cybercrime Rises and Vista 7 is Already Open to Hijackers
• Vista 7: Broken Apart Before Arrival
• Department of Homeland Security 'Poisoned' by Microsoft; Vista 7 is Open to Hijackers Again
• Vista 7 Security “Cannot be Fixed. It's a Design Problem.”
• Why Vista 7 Could be the Least Secure Operating System Ever
• Journalists Suggest Banning Windows, Maybe Suing Microsoft Over DDoS Attacks
• Vista 7 Vulnerable to Latest “Critical” Flaws
• Vista 7 Seemingly Affected by Several More “Critical” Flaws This Month
• Reason #1 to Avoid Vista 7: Insecurity
• Vista 7 Left Hijackable Again (Almost a Monthly Recurrence)

According to IDG, "Hacker busts IE8 on Windows 7 in 2 minutes"

Two researchers yesterday won $10,000 each at the Pwn2Own hacking contest by bypassing important security measures of Windows 7.

Both Peter Vreugdenhil of the Netherlands and a German researcher who would only identify himself by the first name Nils found ways to disable DEP (data execution prevention) and ASLR (address space layout randomization), which are two of Windows 7's most vaunted anti-exploit features. Each contestant faced down the fully-patched 64-bit version of Windows 7 and came out a winner.

"Hacker Bypasses Windows 7 Anti-Exploit Features In IE 8 Hack," reports Dark Reading, a Web site which is focused on security issues.

A Dutch researcher won $10,000 in the Pwn2Own hacking contest this week for hacking Internet Explorer 8 on a Windows 7 machine -- bypassing built-in anti-exploit features in the operating system.

From Microsoft sites comes a bit of spin and it's worth noting that Apple's proprietary products got cracked too.

Miller used one of the flaws he found by dumb fuzzing yesterday to exploit Safari on a MacBook Pro, walking off with the notebook, $10,000 and a free trip to Las Vegas this summer to the DefCon hacking conference.

Here is an interview with Miller and a summary from The Inquirer that says: "Apple and Microsoft get trashed by hackers again"

Some months ago we wrote about Microsoft entering Telstra [1, 2], so the following new item is also worth mentioning.

Telstra Corporation director of security services, Andy Solterback, has responded to claims by Microsoft that it has largely fixed security problems.

It is now being claimed the Internet attacks which are mostly caused by Windows zombies hit Seattle the most.

Seattle is top, according to the report, for cyberattacks and potential infections and online behaviour that can lead to cybercrime, like online shops, online banks and wi-fi.

It is rather interesting that Windows zombies go right back where they came from. ⬆