MS fortifies Windows 7 kernel with overrun buster

[Airbot]

Microsoft engineers have fortified the latest version of Windows with a feature designed to make it significantly harder for attackers to exploit bugs that may be lurking deep inside the operating system.
The safeguard is called safe unlinking, and it's been dropped into a part of the Windows 7 kernel that allocates and deallocates chunks of memory. Safe unlinking performs a series of checks before entries are removed to make sure attackers aren't trying to exploit the operating system using what's known as a pool overrun.
"This simple check blocks the most common exploit technique for pool overruns," Peter Beck, a member of Microsoft's Security Science team writes here. "It doesn't mean pool overruns are impossible to exploit, but it significantly increases the work for an attacker."

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[Mark]

Thanks for the news Aaron, good to know they are still improving the security but it can never be enough.

 

[bhuulo]

There is no fullproof OS including Linux, you can only lessen them and that's what MS is trying to do...

 

[Win7User512]

Bravo to MS. Hopefully future measures continue to not interfere with performance.

 

[TheMan]

There is no fullproof OS ...

I agree on that statement. Everybody learns along the way.
And that includes MS!

And... unfortunately hackers and virusmakers.

The history of computers will always be, and has always been a neverending story/battle.

 

[bhuulo]

The only thing Linux is safe ATM is its usage ratio..., when it grows then u'll all see viruses, malwares and other threats even for linux no matter how it is built....

 

[darkassain]

Right on the spot bhuulo and TheMan

That and that its been hammered for so long by hackers compared to MS...
id say one of the most secure are the RTOS's out there Being used by goverment agencies and id say second would be Unix as its out for pretty out there since the web started and since it has had more time to mature security wise and that it was one of main OS's to be hacked upon in the old days when noone was on the net (only a bunch of Unix computers and Servers) which has strengthen much the OS design...

The malware creator wants to infect and create a backdoor these days...
creating massive botnets and hiding their trails along the way...
and making use of these botnets for extortion, blackmail, and even for hire by the highest bidder (be it a rival company, mafia ect...)

Also remember that not only does it the program have to be tailored to the specific OS ver but also the specific vulnerability...
want to hit a Mac PC?
Well 9/10 you are going to be wrong compared to the 1/10 wrong if you hit a Windows PC, god help you if you want to hit a Linux machine or even worse a Unix machine...
Which do you think looks better to the malware and which one creates less hassle for him/her?
The Windows PC of course...
its the easiest target of all and doing every little bit MS can reinforce the security of the kernel space is a Very Good thing.

Although all it will take is very critical bug to render this useless and what worse people can create frameworks where the pretty much all the hard work is done by the black hat author
all the potential malware author has to do is discover a bug that allow for his code to run in the kernel space (ring 0)
i applaud MS for doing this as this signifies that they are taking preventive measures to lessen attack from hackers...
all that i ask is to test it extensively to the point that you can be certain that this can be applied without any errors or bugs as this can bring this tech down...


and which is why im entering into this field...
A never ending battle means to me never ending job opportunities...

 

[bhuulo]

I think MS is doing better slowly although there are tons and tons people, forums and threads critisizing them... I think they are inspired by the criticism...:sarc:

Pardon Me, If I have stepped on someone's mind or tongue but Linux is not for Common user becuase it needs time to be dedicated extensively and for businesses it is a big No (I'm not talking about some companies) because as we work Adobe Indesign and Corel give out work for printing, then there may applications available equailent to these but then the printer also needs them, so it is practically a No... so windows is most used os and windows is most targetted os...
Atleast I appriciate the steps taken by MS...

 

[darkassain]

I think MS is doing better slowly although there are tons and tons people, forums and threads critisizing them... I think they are inspired by the criticism...:sarc:

well technically not only that since they have been criticized for as long as i can remember security wise.
while it never reached the heights that vista reached i believe its more than that...
malware authors are getting more sophisticated and create better malware which might be able to create severe buffer overflows in non executable areas (response was DEP ) attacks on certain memory locations (response was ASLR) and now to prevent pool overruns (response will be safe unlinking)

Pardon Me, If I have stepped on someone's mind or tongue but Linux is not for Common user becuase it needs time to be dedicated extensively and for businesses it is a big No (I'm not talking about some companies) because as we work Adobe Indesign and Corel give out work for printing, then there may applications available equailent to these but then the printer also needs them, so it is practically a No... so windows is most used os and windows is most targetted os...
Atleast I appriciate the steps taken by MS...

of course not....
well at least speaking for myself (i use many OS'es at any time as you can see although i am starting to be bias for using 7 as my *main* os..)

it can be for the *regular* consumer in the way that he has tasks that are abstract and dont require a specific application to be done...
lets say a Word processor
there are many out there and so if the user just wants to type a letter he can do so being given the right tools...

but being a profession relying on a piece of software i can see your reasoning...
Corels and Adobe's programs are very powerfully and flexible and they are great on professionals so if its good for you by all means you shouldnt do anything drastic to either compromise the security of your OS and/or stability.

right now even having a old OS you have protection as a minority (like i said in a thread ago there was i486 running win95 and its still running and even more so stable and protected because the operator practices safe handling of files, and does not install anything he can grab off the net(compared to the win98 those were crash a hour systems.....)
the best part is that according to the operator it has never went thru a reinstall..:shock:

 

[bhuulo]

I agree completely that linux is useful for common man's task like typing letters and browsing or some photoshopping or sorry rather to say gimping...(caution u may not find these words in dictionary as they are indian words):sarc:

 

[TheMan]

A never ending battle means to me never ending job opportunities...

And U are to, Mr Assasino El Darco, right on the spot! hehe

Thats what some of us makes a living on, so halleluja for that.