[Infowarrior] - Vista hacked at Black Hat

[Richard Forno]

Vista hacked at Black Hat

By Joris Evers
http://news.com.com/Vista+hacked+at+Black+Hat/2100-7349_3-6102458.html

Story last modified Fri Aug 04 15:26:35 PDT 2006

LAS VEGAS--While Microsoft talked up Windows Vista security at Black Hat, a
researcher in another room demonstrated how to hack the operating system.

Joanna Rutkowska, a Polish researcher at Singapore-based Coseinc, showed
that it is possible to bypass security measures in Vista that should prevent
unsigned code from running.

And in a second part of her talk, Rutkowska explained how it is possible to
use virtualization technology to make malicious code undetectable, in the
same way a rootkit does. She code-named this malicious software Blue Pill.

"Microsoft is investigating solutions for the final release of Windows Vista
to help protect against the attacks demonstrated," a representative for the
software maker said. "In addition, we are working with our hardware partners
to investigate ways to help prevent the virtualization attack used by the
Blue Pill."

At Black Hat, Microsoft gave out copies of an early Vista release for
attendees to test. The software maker is still soliciting feedback on the
successor to Windows XP, which is slated to be broadly available in January.

Rutkowska's presentation filled a large ballroom at Caesars Palace to
capacity, even though it was during the last time slot on the final day of
the annual Black Hat security confab here. She used an early test version of
Vista for her research work.

As one of the security measures in Vista, Microsoft is adding a mechanism to
block unsigned driver software to run on the 64-bit version of the operating
system. However, Rutkowska found a way to bypass the shield and get her code
to run. Malicious drivers could pose a serious threat because they run at a
low level in the operating system, security experts have said.

"The fact that this mechanism was bypassed does not mean that Vista is
completely insecure. It's just not as secure as advertised," Rutkowska said.
"It's very difficult to implement a 100 percent-efficient kernel
protection."

To stage the attack, however, Vista needs to be running in administrator
mode, Rutkowska acknowledged. That means her attack would be foiled by
Microsoft's User Account Control, a Vista feature that runs a PC with fewer
user privileges. UAC is a key Microsoft effort to prevent malicious code
from being able to do as much damage as on a PC running in administrator
mode, a typical setting on Windows XP.

"I just hit accept," Rutkowska replied to a question from the audience about
how she bypassed UAC. Because of the many security pop-ups in Windows, many
users will do the same without realizing what they are allowing, she said.

Microsoft has touted Vista as its most secure version of Windows yet. It is
the first operating system client to go through the company's Security
Development Lifecycle, a process to vet code and stamp out flaws before a
product ships.

"Windows Vista has many layers of defense, including the firewall, running
as a standard user, Internet Explorer Protected Mode, /NX support, and ASLR,
which help prevent arbitrary code from running with administrative
privileges," the Microsoft representative noted.

After the presentation on bypassing the driver shield, Rutkowska presented a
way to create the stealthy malicious software she code-named Blue Pill. The
technique uses Pacifica, a Secure Virtual Machine, from chipmaker Advanced
Micro Devices, to go undetected.

Blue Pill could serve as a backdoor for attackers, Rutkowska said. While it
was developed on Vista and AMD's technology, it should also work on other
operating systems and hardware platforms. "Some people suggested that my
work is sponsored by Intel, as I focused on AMD virtualization technology
only," she said, adding that is untrue.