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Vista: No Silver Bullet for Security
Thursday, August 10th, 2006
If your vision of Microsoft’s new Vista operating environment involves a nice, quiet second 
Tuesday of the month, snap out of it: The new OS is better, not perfect.
Microsoft’s upcoming Vista operating system will be more resistant to attacks than previous versions of Windows, security experts say. But the new OS still offers a big target, a few weak spots, and plenty of room for patching.
Applications — particularly existing, non-Vista apps — will be the weak link for Vista, says Thomas Ptacek, a researcher with Matasano Security. Vista’s security dilemma is no different from that of any other OS, Ptacek says. "The OS is just there to run the programs, and if the programs themselves are not secure, the whole system is insecure."
Apps that weren’t written to run on Vista are indeed at risk, says Mark Shavlik, president of Shavlik Technologies.
Attackers are increasingly targeting applications, and existing programs ported to Vista won’t be any safer there than they were on Windows XP or its predecessors. "If an application has a flaw that can be taken advantage of, something will gain access to it," says Eng- Wee Yeo, senior security consultant with Shavlik. Dark Reading - Desktop Security - Vista: No Silver Bullet for Security - Security News Analysis
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