Quote:This week at the Black Hat Security Conference two security researchers will discuss their findings which could completely bring Windows Vista to its knees.

Mark Dowd of IBM Internet Security Systems (ISS) and Alexander Sotirov, of VMware Inc. have discovered a technique that can be used to bypass all memory protection safeguards that Microsoft built into Windows Vista. These new methods have been used to get around Vista's Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), Data Execution Prevention (DEP) and other protections by loading malicious content through an active web browser. The researchers were able to load whatever content they wanted into any location they wished on a user's machine using a variety of objects, such as Java, ActiveX and even .NET objects. This feat was achieved by taking advantage of the way that Internet Explorer (and other browsers) handle active scripting in the Operating System.

While this may seem like any standard security hole, other researchers say that the work is a major breakthrough and there is very little that Microsoft can do to fix the problems. These attacks work differently than other security exploits, as they aren't based on any new Windows vulnerabilities, but instead take advantage of the way Microsoft chose to guard Vista's fundamental architecture. According to Dino Dai Zovi, a popular security researcher, "the genius of this is that it's completely reusable. They have attacks that let them load chosen content to a chosen location with chosen permissions. That's completely game over."

According to Microsoft, many of the defenses added to Windows Vista (and Windows Server 2008) were added to stop all host-based attacks. For example, ASLR is meant to stop attackers from predicting key memory addresses by randomly moving a process' stack, heap and libraries. While this technique is very useful against memory corruption attacks, it would be rendered useless against Dowd and Sotirov's new method. "This stuff just takes a knife to a large part of the security mesh Microsoft built into Vista," said Dai Zovi to SearchSecurity.com. "If you think about the fact that .NET loads DLLs into the browser itself and then Microsoft assumes they're safe because they're .NET objects, you see that Microsoft didn't think about the idea that these could be used as stepping stones for other attacks. This is a real tour de force."

While Microsoft hasn't officially responded to the findings, Mike Reavey, group manager of the Microsoft Security Response Center, said the company has been aware of the research and is very interested to see it once it has been made public. It currently isn't known whether these exploits can be used against older Microsoft Operating Systems, such as Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, but since these techniques do not rely on any one specific vulnerability, Zovi believes that wee may suddenly see many similar techniques applied to other platforms or environments. "This is not insanely technical. These two guys are capable of the really low-level technical attacks, but this is simple and reusable," Dai Zovi said. "I definitely think this will get reused soon."

These techniques are being seen as an advance that many in the security community say will have far-reaching implications not only for Microsoft, but also on how the entire technology industry thinks about attacks. Expect to be hearing more about this in the near future and possibly being faced with the prospect of your "secure" server being stripped completely naked of all its protection.

Source

I read it on Gizmodo

Quote:Microsoft programmers are apparently aware of the exploit presentation at Black Hat, and are waiting to see the findings themselves. Presented by Mark Dowd and Alexander Sotirov, of IBM and VMware, respectively, the exploit negates key security features such as Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), Data Execution Prevention (DEP), which make it difficult to locate and execute code and data. And apparently this exploit is so broad and game changing that it could be applied to other platforms. OS X, beware? [SearchSecurity via Electronista]

Senseito Sakura Wrote:I read it on Gizmodo

Well, yes. If said OS can run active scripting, them this might work on all systems.

* xero1 looks at the PS3, PSP, XBox, etc... >.>

xero1 Wrote:

Senseito Sakura Wrote:I read it on Gizmodo

Well, yes. If said OS can run active scripting, them this might work on all systems.

* xero1 looks at the PS3, PSP, XBox, etc... >.>

uñya~~

I feel so vulnerable

Slushba132 Wrote:...but does it work if you have a firewall?

Your crazy, you crazy you.
Time I started writing my own os.
I wanted to combine linux windows and mac a long time ago

Does a firewall stop java, or ActiveX from running? If it was that simple this wouldn't be news.

The only way to be "safe" is to turn all scripting, and images off. Even then.. some things are needed to view a page, so stay offline and you'll be fine :D

NoScript is needed for these times!

Slushba132 Wrote:I WILL BEGIN PREPARATIONS FOR THE ULTIMATE OS IMMEDIATELY!!!

I kinda saw this coming.