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> getting ring0 by installing a terribly designed and dubious kernel driver Given that most drivers are software written by hardware companies and, as soon as
by trelane 4y ago
> getting ring0 by installing a terribly designed and dubious kernel driver
Given that most drivers are software written by hardware companies and, as soon as the device is sold, are just a liability, is this really going to be a huge barrier? How often do drivers get updated, say 1 or 2 years post release?
Same thing as many non-subscription wireless routers.
- meandmycode 4y agoSure, but is this unique to Windows or Word? and there are various ways Microsoft could kill bit this driver if it was widely exploited with no support from the company that made it
- gw99 4y agoWord is a useful vector because a lot of hardening software throws a load of stuff on the Windows UI to stop you executing anything but does not touch VBA. I've had to use VBA many times to work around abhorrent user controls that prevented work from being done.
- trelane 4y agoWindows does hardware support primarily though proprietary drivers specific to that hardware. Outside of that, its own innate hardware support is quite lackluster compared to other OSes (especially Linux, due to the pressure to put drivers in the kernel, where they're open and maintained.) Sure, they can unilaterally kill any software on their platform, it's perhaps an important thing to note about it and other platforms where this is true. (Answering questions of ownership and user rights that inherently arise from this and other similar facts are left as an exercise to the reader). However, that also comes at the cost of disabling the hardware that the driver serves, at least until it's fixed.
- Dwedit 4y agoIn this case, the driver does not have any hardware. It's a purely software driver for an anti-malware scanner.