11-Feb-2007, 08:55 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Vista Hacked Cracked and Broken
All the effort Microsoft has put into making sure this Windows would be the most secure ever appears to be somewhat in vain. Iranian hackers, operating through a legitimate software firm, have gotten past all of Microsoft's "anti-copying tricks". These hackers claim they will sell these illegitimate copies of Windows Vista through the firm they work for at approximately $8 USD a copy. What's really interesting, though, is how they managed to give each pirated copy of Vista its own serial number, so that they can register it through Microsoft as a legal copy of Windows Vista.
Also Russian hackers posted instructions to an underground forum describing how to implement "privilege escalation," which could bypass some Vista security measures. This hack could escalate the "privileges" of a normal Vista user into that of a "superuser," allowing him to change anything he desired on the system. This would be particularly dangerous in a corporate environment where normal computer users have limited privileges, in that they cannot install programs, visit certain Web sites, etc. This threat is considered so serious that Microsoft has scrambled its "Security Response Center," which is ostensibly still trying to figure out what to do.
Microsoft also recently acknowledged that Vista's built-in speech recognition software could be exploited by bad guys to delete files and even shut the computer down. This wacky (and quite clever) hack works something like this: A Vista user downloads and plays a malicious audio file, probably thinking that it's the latest Toby Keith song. Instead, the audio file begins barking commands through the computer's speakers, such as, "Delete all files in the 'My Documents' folder," or, "System shut down." These verbal commands are picked up by the computer's microphone, processed by the built-in speech recognition software, and the computer obeys
Source:All the effort Microsoft has put into making sure this Windows would be the most secure ever appears to be somewhat in vain. Iranian hackers, operating through a legitimate software firm, have gotten past all of Microsoft's "anti-copying tricks". These hackers claim they will sell these illegitimate copies of Windows Vista through the firm they work for at approximately $8 USD a copy. What's really interesting, though, is how they managed to give each pirated copy of Vista its own serial number, so that they can register it through Microsoft as a legal copy of Windows Vista.
Also Russian hackers posted instructions to an underground forum describing how to implement "privilege escalation," which could bypass some Vista security measures. This hack could escalate the "privileges" of a normal Vista user into that of a "superuser," allowing him to change anything he desired on the system. This would be particularly dangerous in a corporate environment where normal computer users have limited privileges, in that they cannot install programs, visit certain Web sites, etc. This threat is considered so serious that Microsoft has scrambled its "Security Response Center," which is ostensibly still trying to figure out what to do.
Microsoft also recently acknowledged that Vista's built-in speech recognition software could be exploited by bad guys to delete files and even shut the computer down. This wacky (and quite clever) hack works something like this: A Vista user downloads and plays a malicious audio file, probably thinking that it's the latest Toby Keith song. Instead, the audio file begins barking commands through the computer's speakers, such as, "Delete all files in the 'My Documents' folder," or, "System shut down." These verbal commands are picked up by the computer's microphone, processed by the built-in speech recognition software, and the computer obeys
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