Aug 3rd 2006
Security Now 51
Vista's Virgin Stack
Will Windows Vista be secure? According to a new study from Symantec, the decision to re-write the networking stack from the ground up means it will be much less secure than XP...
Microsoft promises that Windows Vista, which is expected to ship in early 2007, will be the most secure version of Windows ever. They promised the same thing for XP, and it took five years to lock it down. Unfortunately, Microsoft has decided to re-write the network stack from scratch for Vista, perhaps an understandable decision given the number of new technologies they'd like to support, but according to a recent study from Symantec, the new Vista stack re-introduces many of the flaws fixed in the old XP stack. Can an untried stack be trusted? Will Windows Vista be stronger or weaker? The study raises some questions which Steve addresses in this episode.
The Symantec study is available via PDF here.
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For 16kpbs versions, transcripts, and notes, visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6.