Microsoft has admitted to a major Vista flaw
Written by Kartik Satija on 12:55 AMMicrosoft has started investigating a security vulnerability which affects Vista, its newly launched operating system.
Mike Reavey, operations manager at Microsoft’s Security Response Centre, revealed that Vista is vulnerable to a flaw that allows a malicious hacker to escalate user privileges within several versions of Windows.
"Initial indications are that in order for the attack to be successful, the attacker must already have authenticated access to the target system," wrote Reavey.
"While I know this is a vulnerability that impacts Windows Vista I still have every confidence that Windows Vista is our most secure platform to date. As always, we here at the MSRC encourage everyone to enable a firewall, apply all security updates and install anti-virus and anti-spyware software," he added.
P.S:Well if that is the answer that Microsoft is giving.....I should say that they better start trying their luck in making antispyware softwares rather than bugging to make a secure operating system,for which they obviously have a long distance to go.
Vista is Microsoft's first operating system release in five years. The company had repeatedly emphasised that it is more secure than previous versions, having been extensively rewritten.
But I feel that it is still not upto the standards that many platforms of its class are at present.
One major change in Vista is that users accounts are created with administrator privileges turned off by default, unlike in XP where they are automatically turned on. Microsoft has cited this change as a key security change, as these administrator powers can be used to turn off other security measures.
As such, this flaw could put Vista users at risk. However, Mikko Hyppönen, chief research officer with Finnish security company F-Secure, has already said that the flaw it should not concern corporate or individual users as a malicious hacker can't take advantage of it unless they already have access to their machine.
Let us wait and watch what happens !!!!Then only we would be in a position to tell wether or not to spend big bucks on it.
What do you feel?Comments will be appreciated.
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