Massive Windows 7 vunerability

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NVIDIA_x64

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Researchers claim the Windows 7 operating system's boot up sequence is flawed and completely unfixable.

This week the world's leading cybersecurity professionals gathered in Dubai at the Hack In The Box Security Conference to discuss the state of the industry, identify new threats, share pro-tips, and play Dungeons and Dragons. Ok, probably not that last part, but you get the point; high-nerdery was clearly afoot at the Sheraton Dubai Creek.

One of the more prominent topics of discussion was Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 7. While a number of exploits and potential vulnerabilities of the system were discussed at the conference, one identified loophole in the system has security professionals troubled… and morbidly fascinated.

A team of researchers located an exploit within the new operating system that can allow hackers to take control of a user's machine during the startup process. The problem was identified by Vipin Kumar and Nitin Kumar, who created a program called VBootKit 2.0 that exploits the weakness and allows a hacker to bypass the machine's hard drive entirely, making it nearly impossible to detect.

Once hackers can implement the software, they can then change access permissions, passwords, and gain access to a user's sensitive information. What's worse, a program like the one created by Vipin and Nitin Kumar can be as small as 3KBs, and thus can be spread rapidly. Naturally, problems like these are common during the pre-release beta stages, but Vipin and Nitin Kumar claim that this vulnerability is unique and completely unfixable. "There's no fix for this. It cannot be fixed," said Vipin during his presentation in Dubai. "It's a design problem." Microsoft has yet to comment on the exploit or formally acknowledge its existence, however, if Vipin and Nitin's claims are true, it could mean serious trouble for the forthcoming operating system's sales. For all the latest on Windows 7 [ via IGN - thanks Devolution]
 
Two security researchers claim they've found an exploit in Windows 7 that cannot be fixed. However, the good news is that the attack takes place during the bootup process and can't be done remotely. Physical access to a Windows 7 system is necessary for the attack to work.

While VBootkit 2.0 shows how an attacker can take control of a Windows 7 computer, it's not necessarily a serious threat. For the attack to work, an attacker must have physical access to the victim's computer. The attack can not be done remotely.

VBootkit 2.0, which is just 3KB in size, allows an attacker to take control of the computer by making changes to Windows 7 files that are loaded into the system memory during the boot process. Since no files are changed on the hard disk, VBootkit 2.0 is very difficult to detect, he said.

However, when the victim's computer is rebooted, VBootkit 2.0 will lose its hold over the computer as data contained in system memory will be lost.
 
any machine can be vulnerable when the hacker is sat in front of it.

Nothing in it as far as im concerned.

There are plenty of tools out there that can hack a machine if you boot up using them.

Pfft pee'in in the wind.
 
Nothing but scare mongering, you can reset the root password of any linux distro quite easily if you have access to it as well as Windows admin passwords, this is why most servers are locked away. The hardest part of hacking should be gaining physical access and in most cases this is the case :)
 
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this is like saying that a hacker sat infront of your computer could impliment a "usefull screws" exploit and permanently steal your data :p :D
 
This isn't really that much of an exploit, since once you have root access to the PC there's probably a billion things you could do to break into it. Non-news imo.
 
If a hacker was able to sit in front of my computer I would be asking myself.. what is this guy doing sat on my lap?!
 
It's not an vulnerability at all. And the researchers didn't even present it in a "omgz windows 7 is crap!" type way.

As per usual the technology media are trying to twist the story to drum some anti-W7 stories because thus far the reception has been too positive and they don't like that. It's not good for click-thrus on advertisements... ;)
 
This has been around since the Vista beta. The writing is rather creative too.

What's worse, a program like the one created by Vipin and Nitin Kumar can be as small as 3KBs, and thus can be spread rapidly.
Click to expand...

It's not a remote exploit. If you have physical access to the machine it would make little difference.

And apparently Bitlocker + TMP stops this exploit.
 
just this morning i had to beat a hacker off my Windows7 Laptop with a stick because he was trying to install an "easy-to-spread" bootloader using a flash drive :p
 
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