Bonum Certa Men Certa

Reader's Article: Microsoft Windows Hoses Homeland Security

Geodesic dome
Pentagons



Summary: DHS and Windows - affair revisited

WINDOWS CONTINUES to be a sordid, insecure mess. We will give some examples within days, but in the mean time, here is a new flaw in Internet Explorer 8, which Microsoft loves to pretend is secure:



"A nasty vulnerability exists in the latest Internet Explorer 8," Evans wrote. "I have been unsuccessful in persuading the vendor to issue a fix."

"The bug permits — for example — an arbitrary web site to force the victim to make tweets," he added.

The vulnerability may exist in other versions of IE and appears to be an extension of a cross-browser cross domain theft first documented by Evans via his scarybeastsecurity blog last December. Evans claims Microsoft has been aware of the bug since 2008, producing a harmless proof-of-concept exploit to illustrate his concerns.


A reader of ours has also just contributed the following short article: "Slashdot is running another story that fails to call out Windows. To be fair, neither did the Wired article or the Department of Homeland Security report itself. The last omission is inexcusable because DHS had all the information and should help US citizens make informed decisions by publishing instead of shielding Microsoft by obfuscating.

"There are tantalizing clues in the report and a damning indictment of Windows. The report The US Department of Homeland Security found more than a thousand serious vulnerabilities on their own network. Almost all of the holes were in applications run on Windows and flaws in Windows itself:

Overall, we identified 1,085 instances of high-risk vulnerabilities on the MOE [Mission Operating Environment]; 202 were unique across 174 MOE computers scanned. The majority of the high-risk vulnerabilities involved application [94%] and operating system [6%] and security software patches that had not been deployed ...The application vulnerabilities identified in our scans of the MOE, which NCSD uses for email service and access to NCPS Einstein data, include those involving Microsoft applications, Adobe Acrobat, and Sun Java. ... more exploitation attempts are recorded on application programs, especially email attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in commonly used software and programs such as Adobe and Microsoft Office. Though application attacks are on the rise, operating system ... Though application attacks are on the rise, operating system attacks are still a security concern; more than 90% of operating system attacks involve buffer overflow vulnerabilities against Windows operating systems.


"When someone says "email attacks" they are usually talking about a particular Windows client. Because the DHS did not break down applications by OS, readers are left guessing what they are talking about. Why bother to give the breakdown for the minority problem, OS, while leaving the majority of problems, applications, nebulous?

"We do know from the report that DHS is a Windows shop and that causes most of the problems. The agency flagellates itself for not following Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) requirements or their own policies and recommends they, "Implement a software management solution that will automatically deploy operating system and application security patches and updates on all MOE computer systems to mitigate current and future vulnerabilities." If they were using GNU/Linux, they would already have such a thing because every distribution comes with a package manager.

"Updates are nearly impossible on Windows but trivial with GNU/Linux. Updates for Windows are spread far and wide on vendor sites, often behind javascript and other barriers to automated discovery. Many vendors have auto update tools but many resemble spyware, introduce security problems of their own and running them all at once drains system resources. Worse, Microsoft is notorious for breaking Windows and other applications with their updates, and every large organization and software vendor ends up doing their own set of tests before they can roll out anything to users. This is an enormous duplication of effort not found in the cooperative world of GNU/Linux. Free software has no such barriers to discovery or copy, so all of the heavy lifting gets done by distributions' package manager that is already automated."

Does it not seem reasonable to suggest that DHS should abandon Windows? Sadly, it has former Microsoft seniors in house.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft Lunduke is Just Provoking People for Provocation's Sake
Be forewarned and remember where this guy came from: Microsoft
It's a Lot Easier to Participate in the Unethical System Than to Oppose Injustices in It
Going after powerful and high-budget interests is never easy
 
Hate Mail From Anonymous Cowards
if this persists, we'll need to escalate
Informal Open Letter to the Lawyer of the Microsofters (on Who's Funding the SLAPPs Against Techrights)
Whenever I ask about the funding they try to change the subject and act all aggressive
Besieged by Plagiarists Who Play With LLMs and Image Fusions
We really need to exercise or use our collective voice to oppose Serial Sloppers
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 08, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, August 08, 2025
Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Water Painting and Political Violence
Links for the day
Slopwatch: LLM Sloppers in Google News, LinuxSecurity, and More
they also perpetuate some falsehoods as the LLMs lack any comprehension
Links 08/08/2025: China King of Plastics and US Dictator Plans to Meet Russian Dictator
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/08/2025: Cracking a Family Member's Password and Overdose of Slop
Links for the day
Red Hat's Latest Talent Hunt, Day Ahead of Mass Layoffs, is Yet Another Microsoft Executive
Red Hat will apparently commence mass layoffs early this coming Monday
Links 08/08/2025: "Quit Facebook" and High Cost of Microsoft/Windows Shown Again ("BlackSuit")
Links for the day
Good Morning, Readers of The Register MS
Things The Register MS could (but does not) cover this morning
Why Gemini Protocol Has a Bright Future
Maybe Gemini Protocol's promise becomes more appealing as the Web turns to slop and bloat
Microsofters Filed Two SLAPPs Against Us, Now They Cannot Keep Up With Judges' Orders
For over 4 months already their facilitator in London has been under investigation by British authorities because of what's being done to my wife and I
Censorship Regarding Red Hat Layoffs
Talk about this? They'd rather not.
Struggling to Cut Costs, Microsoft Continues Shutting Down and Cancelling Stuff This Month
There are August layoffs at Microsoft
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 07, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 07, 2025
Fake 'Linux' Articles, Written by Bots to Take Traffic Away From Real Articles
LLM slop helps replace information with junk or misinformation
When Google's Googlebombing of "Gemini" Was Not Enough; They Now Also Googlebomb "Gemini Space"?
We know GAFAM not only worries about Gemini Protocol but also attempts to 'infiltrate' Geminispace
The Register MS Promotes Microsoft Slop, Assumes All Readers Use Microsoft Windows
Microsoft really dominates the site
Gemini Links 08/08/2025: KDE/Qt Development and What's Missing From "Retro"
Links for the day
Links 07/08/2025: US Punishes India Instead of Russia, Attacks Law Firms to Prevent Scrutiny
Links for the day
Read Us in Geminispace as Well
it's definitely a lot simpler than using a Web browser
Once a Site About BSD and GNU/Linux, and After Months of Silence, LinuxBSDos.com Comes Back Only as a Slopfarm
very frustrating
Links 07/08/2025: Hardware Wars, Mass Recall of Colgate Total Clean Mint, More Microsoft Holes Found
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/08/2025: "Right To Manage" and LoRa Analysis
Links for the day
For the First Time in a Month OSI's "OpenSource.org" Blogs and It's Basically a Microsoft Blog Post (Microsoft Controls OSI)
For the first time in a month OSI writes something and it is Microsoft propaganda composed by a Microsoft-salaried operative
Microsoft, Already Borrowing 3 Billion Dollars a Month, is Trying to Cause Many People to Resign
MSN (i.e. Microsoft) and others openly admit it
GAFAM 'Says' is Front Page "News"
The point of journalism is to check and assess facts, not parrot what people and companies merely claim
Links 07/08/2025: Apple Makes False Promises, More Trouble for Microsoft
Links for the day
OSS Didn't Always Mean Open Source Software
"oligarchs all the way down"
The Register MS Does More Microsoft Sez or GitHub Sez (Says) Pieces
60 minutes ago
They Want Activists to Just Barely Walk and Eat, Not Do Activism Anymore
It's sort of like the ending of '1984'
Quit Perpetuating the Narrative of Gemini Protocol 'Dying' (It's False)
The "whisper campaign" against Gemini Protocol
Criticising Social Control Media in Social Control Media
Many people are quitting Social Control Media (fewer of them announce this in public)
Non-Free JavaScript Programs in Banks Aren't Even the Biggest Problem
Technology was supposed to make life easier; in practice, however, for most of us the opposite effect can be observed
Slopfarms Are Typically Fake News
Slopfarms typically relay falsehoods
Gemini Links 06/08/2025: Replacing a Pocket Watch and Buying in Bulk
Links for the day
IBM is Obliterating Fedora
"Fedora releases were shipping with an increasing number of bugs on launch day even while I was using it for a several year stretch."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 06, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 06, 2025