Windows Vista Left Vulnerable Over Christmas
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2008-12-30 00:49:15 UTC
- Modified: 2008-12-30 00:49:15 UTC
AS WE POINTED OUT on Christmas day, Microsoft
left its users/clients vulnerable over the holidays. But there's actually more than we mentioned at the time. One of our readers points out that new flaws were found -- accompanied by exploits -- that can
hijack Windows Vista and predecessors (Vista was
never secure anyway).
The following exploit utilizes the XML vulnerability in Internet Explorer to execute arbitrary code under Vista.
Here is
another new one:
A vulnerability was reported in Windows Media Player. A remote user can cause arbitrary code to be executed on the target user's system.
Over at The Register, it is being reported that
Samsung picture frames are dangerous to Windows users ("The disc is needed to use the kit as a USB monitor on windows XP machines"). We've covered
the follies of Samsung in the past because they stabbed Linux in the back by
signing a patent deal with Microsoft.
The BBC labels 2008 an
unprecedentedly bad year for security, but surely it won't get any better in 2009, not when
about 40% of all (Windows) machines are zombies and many people are out of work.
Criminal gangs generate so many viruses for two main reasons. Firstly, many variants of essentially the same malicious program can cause problems for anti-virus software which can only reliably defend against threats it is aware of.
Bearing in mind
everything that people already know and
witness, the BBC does write: "The vast majority of these malicious programs are aimed at Windows PCs. Viruses made their debut more than 20 years ago but the vast majority of that million plus total have been created in the last two-three years." It later shows the Windows logo above a caption that says "Most attacks are aimed at PCs running the Windows operating system."
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Comments
Thomas Holbrook II
2008-12-30 10:18:08
aeshna23
2008-12-30 14:01:30
Roy Schestowitz
2008-12-30 14:31:18
--Bill Gates
[PDF]Enough said.
Think about ActiveX too. It's about binding the Web browser and Web sites to one operating system.
"Another suggestion In this mail was that we can’t make our own unilateral extensions to HTML I was going to say this was wrong and correct this also."
--Bill Gates
[PDF]