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Sophos Finds Windows 7 UAC Fails to Block 7 out of 10 Pieces of Malware
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Posted by Donster on: 2009-11-05 15:26:23 277
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Antivirus protection still necessary, says firm
By Jason Mick @ DailyTech
One of the most unpopular features of Windows Vista among casual users was the User Account Control (UAC). Ironically, while the UAC provoked irate comments from these users, like "why is my computer asking me to approve everything", the feature was one of the most appreciated features by power users as it gave them much more control over their security and ability to prevent inappropriate actions.
With Windows 7, Microsoft pledged to go the OS X route on this topic, tuning down the UAC's warnings to a lesser level. Many security firms complained about this approach and Microsoft relented slightly, restoring some of the UAC's warnings, in particular a warning about the disabling the UAC altogether (experts showed that attackers could disable the UAC without prompting the user in early builds of Windows 7).
While these changes helped make Windows 7's release edition more secure than the test builds, the UAC's default setting is still neutered compare to Vista's robust solution, indicates Sophos Senior Security Adviser Chester Wisniewski. He's just completed a study of attacking Windows 7 with malware and seeing how the new UAC responds.
Of the ten pieces of malware tested, Windows 7 wouldn't install two of them. Of the remaining eight only one generated a UAC warning, allowing the user to disallow its installation.
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