Windows 7 UAC Weakness Exposed

go figure, people complained about UAC, so now MS dubbed it down and now it isnt secure... and now peope will btich at MS for not being secure again!

Dammed if you do and dammed if you dont!

A script could easily run under your credentials, turning off UAC and you would never know. Then a startup file could be launched on the next reboot that infects your computer - rendering UAC useless.
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um, a script could easily run under your credentials on Vista as well and if you let a script get ontop your computer to even GET your credentials, chances are your system isnt very safe anyways....


and when you disable UAC you can also disable the user account warning from the security center, so personally, i dont see how this is any different frfom Vista to Windows 7..

or are people just already looking for reasons to hate windows 7...
 
Oh wait. Windows 7 is still beta. A BETA 1 revision OS with a security feature bug. OMG! :rolleyes:
 
Not a big deal. It's still beta and the choice to disable UAC could be upgraded to require confirmation.

I didn't read the source blog yet, but it still sounds like it requires user initiation to run the script. It may be a problem as is for morons who run everything, including scripts, they are presented with. :p
 
I've honestly never seen what's so 'annoying' about UAC. It only runs when you go to make system changes or when something ELSE needs administrative privileges. Basically, it doesn't pop up very often, for me anyways.
 
AbJ32 said:
I've honestly never seen what's so 'annoying' about UAC. It only runs when you go to make system changes or when something ELSE needs administrative privileges. Basically, it doesn't pop up very often, for me anyways.
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Thus the enigma of Vista, which is a very solid OS. The first Windows OS that actually considered security as part of the user experience instead of an afterthought and from what I can tell it seems to have actually been very successful in that regard.
 
Yes, you turn down UAC and it magically doesn't work as well anymore. Who knew... :rolleyes:
 
OMG OMG OMG, the BETA has an issue!

:p

AbJ32 said:
I've honestly never seen what's so 'annoying' about UAC. It only runs when you go to make system changes or when something ELSE needs administrative privileges. Basically, it doesn't pop up very often, for me anyways.
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Agreed, and OSX does pretty much the same thing. It is another layer of security and works well.
 
Microsoft's view is that this is by design, and they do not intend to change it - so it's not so much of a bug in the beta as it is a weakness in UAC in Windows 7. Microsoft never viewed UAC as a security threshold as such, though, saying that you should be running as a limited user for a real threshold.

While true that you'd have to have the code running in the first place, you would probably think that the program would be running with low privileges if you run it deliberately, or the attack might come through a vulnerability in a program running with low privileges, so it would otherwise have limited potential for damage. The script in question sends keypresses to automate the relevant Control Panel applet to turn off UAC (and presumably low-privilege programs could make other changes to Windows settings that way too).

Seems to me that Control Panel applets shouldn't accept input from low-privilege programs?
 
requiemnoise said:
It is only a matter of time to write a malware codes for this and writing a javascripts for the browser based on this wouldn't be very difficult too.
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Without a flaw in the browser you can't do anything with this. Plus if there were a flaw in broswer that let you exploit this, you probably wouldn't need this anyway.

At any rate its a beta and this is why you test things.
 
heatlesssun said:
Without a flaw in the browser you can't do anything with this. Plus if there were a flaw in broswer that let you exploit this, you probably wouldn't need this anyway.

At any rate its a beta and this is why you test things.
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You are right, but we all know many fishing attacks are multiple step process. You only need one weak link to move the steps upward or downward. Malware guys religiously follow bug reports. Since, there are many white hats got laid off and most of them were grey hats to begin with... It is usually two or three weak links in bug reports to accomplish a full task.
 
Yes and do not confuse the hat nicknaming with a jimmy hat, those can be multi-colored. Hopefully, this new UAC setup won't stay the way it is now. It sounds like a slight redesign more than a bug, that's why I say that. Again it's still pretty early so we'll see (unless MS is serious about a very early 2010/late 2009 release and we're on Beta 1 now, this could be a boo-boo).
 
I strongly suggest everyone using the Windows 7 Beta to send feedback to Microsoft about setting the default level of UAC to FULLY ON.

If a user wants to open their system up to stuff like this, they need to make it a conscious decision.
 
pxc said:
Not a big deal. It's still beta and the choice to disable UAC could be upgraded to require confirmation.

I didn't read the source blog yet, but it still sounds like it requires user initiation to run the script. It may be a problem as is for morons who run everything, including scripts, they are presented with. :p
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i mean come on, is not like UAC has a hug button that says "disable" you have to know where to find it, then how to disable it, obviously if you can find it and turn it off, you know your turning it off, how many dam prompts are needed.

Would you like to turn off UAC?
Are you sure?
Positive?
Come on now!, you better be sure!?
Better go ask your wife just to check?

et cetera et cetera!
 
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