Fighting malware and spam

Vista launched, malware still a danger

New Windows version on sale, but viruses remain a threat, says Sophos

The corporate version Microsoft's long-awaited update to its Windows operating system was finally released last week, with home-user editions expected in January. The launch party fireworks were damped somewhat by an announcement from Sophos, revealing that in tests 3 out of the top ten malware were still viable on the new systems.

With many anti-virus and other security vendors pushing out Vista-compatible software last week and this, and others announcing release dates for updated consumer products to coincide with the home-user launch, the new platform has received plaudits for its tighter security design and safety features. In a controversial and soon-withdrawn statement, one Microsoft spokesman went as far as to say the new OS was safe without any anti-virus running. Debate still rumbles over how much access security firms will be given to core parts of the OS, required by many to integrate their products.

On the day of the launch, Sophos released its statement, listing variants of W32/Stration, W32/Mydoom and W32/Netsky as among those capable of running under Vista. While noting that some of the security measures, including the new email client, successfully protected Vista, the release points out that vectors such as webmail may still pose a danger.

In response, Microsoft has claimed that rather than exploiting the operating system, the threats use social engineering to trick users into letting them run.

'These test results will hardly come as much of a surprise either to Microsoft or to security admins,' said John Hawes, Technical Consultant at virus Bulletin. 'With beta versions of Vista around for some time, malware creators have had plenty of time to check out the new safety features and spot which old techniques are still available to them, and it's pretty likely that new holes will emerge over time. It's good to see the addition of tighter controls on installing software and changing parts of the system are effective in blocking at least some of the threats currently out there, and in giving users more warning about what they're doing.'

Virus Bulletin will be running a comparative review of products for the Vista platform, due to appear in the February issue of VB. See here for more details of VB100% certification.

04 December 2006

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