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Microsoft Patches Windows 8 But Leaves Flaws in W7

posted by n1 on Tuesday June 10 2014, @02:50AM   Printer-friendly
from the incomplete-updates-are-available dept.

Hugh Pickens writes:

Darren Pauli writes at the Register that researchers who scanned 900 Windows libraries have uncovered a variety of security functions that were updated in Windows 8 but not in Windows 7. Researcher Moti Joseph speculates Microsoft had not applied fixes to Win 7 to save money. "Why is it that Microsoft inserted a safe function into Windows 8 [but not] Windows 7? The answer is money. Microsoft does not want to waste development time on older operating systems ... and they want people to move to higher operating systems," Joseph said in a presentation at the Troopers14 conference.

Joseph along with Marion Marschalek developed a diffing (comparison) tool dubbed DiffRay which compares Windows 8 with 7, and logs any safe functions absent in the older platform. In a demonstration of DiffRay, the researchers found four missing safe functions in Windows 7 that were present in 8 (Youtube). Future work will extend DiffRay's capabilities to find potential vulnerabilities in Windows 8.1 (PDF), add intelligence to trace input values for functions and incorporate more intelligent signatures used to find potential holes. "If we get one zero-day from this project, it's worth it," says Joseph.

Editor's update: For those who prefer, the Presentation Slides (PDF) are also available.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by EvilJim on Friday June 13 2014, @05:27AM

    by EvilJim (2501) on Friday June 13 2014, @05:27AM (#54826) Journal

    oooh... it pretends to be an ATM... smart move. I didn't bother reading the articles about the hack as they made it sound like they were repurposing win7 updates to use in XP, this makes a hell of a lot more sense.
    sweet, I'll be installing ~50 ATM's at work tomorrow.

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  • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday June 13 2014, @04:04PM

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Friday June 13 2014, @04:04PM (#55021) Homepage Journal

    I don't think I'll do that to my XP computer (but of course, you won't have the luxury I do since they're company computers). I'll just install Linux dual-boot and remove all the Windows networking components. Then I can use the one program I have that needs XP, and Linux can read and write to the Windows partition, so for moving files I'll just boot into Linux.

    Right now it's seldom turned on. When I need to move a file I just disconnect the cable feed to the router first, turn on the XP PC, move the file, shut the XP PC down and reconnect the cable.

    --
    mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org

    • (Score: 2) by EvilJim on Saturday June 14 2014, @01:07AM

      by EvilJim (2501) on Saturday June 14 2014, @01:07AM (#55163) Journal

      haha, we've got an upgrade plan for win7 but if there's delays and some threat looms we'll investigate it. our new database system appears to have an RDP connection for the front end, as soon as we get rid of the last two (that require IE7) I want to get the office on linux, that would make me so proud, and possibly close to redundant :)