Microsoft: Vista won't get a backdoor
Windows Vista won't have a backdoor that could be used by police forces to get into encrypted files, Microsoft has stressed.
In February, a BBC News story suggested that the British government was in discussions with Microsoft over backdoor access to the operating system. A backdoor is a method of bypassing normal authentication to gain access to a computer without to the PC user knowing.
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5.3.2006 Easily Login to Windows XP with No Password Administrator Account Backdoor Trick
In password-protected Windows XP Home or Professional edition system, each user logs on to his or her own user name and password to have full access to the Windows computer.
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25.11.2006 How to Install Vista Language Packs MUI on all versions of Vista + video tutorial
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium, and Vista Business versions of the Microsoft licensing restrictions can only preserve a language!
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23.9.2008 The Vista Built-in Super Administrator Account Has Survived in Vista SP1
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is designed to evolve the RTM version of the latest Windows client from Microsoft, made available in November 2006 to business customers, and in January 2007 to the general consumers.
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15.2.2008 Vista SP1 Is Out, XP SP3 Old News, the Pink Edition of Vista Is In
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is now nothing more than water under the bridge, now that the service pack was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, shipping to general users on March 18.
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27.3.2008 Tell Hasta la Vista to XP - Time to Upgrade to Vista SP1
Like it or not, this is the right time not only to upgrade to Windows Vista Service Pack 1 but also to tell hasta la vista to Windows XP.
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30.6.2008 Instant Change Vista Product ID with Vista ProductID Changer
In past we have reviewed number of application to recover product key like Product Key Finder, WinGuggle, Windows product Key Finder.
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1.11.2009 Vista SP1 RC1 Flies Past Vista RTM and Windows XP SP2
Despite the fact that Microsoft has expressed its official position regarding testing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 ahead of its finalization, there is simply too much of a hunger for the service pack.
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27.12.2007 Vista SP1 Won't Resolve the 4 GB RAM Limitation of 32-bit Windows Vista
32-bit Windows operating systems, and Windows Vista makes no exception whatsoever to this rule, are limited in terms of the amount of system memory that can be addressed to no more than 4 GB.
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4.1.2008 Vista Loader 2.1.3 - Windows Vista Activator 2008 Support SP1 with No Boot String
Vista Loader is one of the most successful Vista activation crack available to date, second only to physical modify (hardmod) the BIOS to include SLIC table to make BIOS Vista activation-compliant.
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15.5.2008 x64 Vista SP2 JPG Rendering Performance Inferior to x86 Vista SP2's
The JPG rendering process on 64-bit flavors of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 is inferior to that on the 32-bit variants of the operating system.
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10.6.2009 Microsoft to Kill the Grace Timer and OEM BIOS Windows Vista Cracks with Vista SP1
With the advent of Windows Vista, cracks also became available being designed to bypass the activation process of the operating system.
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4.12.2007 New Vista OEM Activation Hack - Vista Boot by gkend
Thanks to Steve Jobs for this article on his blog and to our forum members to clecha, Nighthief and fitterphil120 for most of the findings. One again the “Chinese” come up with a new method to trick out the Vista Activation. We have seen Softmode and VistaLoader, however “ Vista Boot by gkend” does promise even more.
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21.5.2007 Windows Vista on Super Nintendo, As Real As Vista on PSP
We're puzzled and confused... How can a console that's at least ten times less powerful than the acclaimed PSP cope with Windows Vista's requirements?
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15.8.2007 Vista RTM vs. Vista SP1 - Office 2007 benchmarking
Enough with benchmarking the OS - let’s see if Office 2007 is any faster on Vista SP1.
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26.2.2008 Microsoft Says Vista SP1 Needs to Speak the Same Language as Vista RTM
Microsoft says that Windows Vista Service Pack 1 needs to speak the same language as the RTM version of the latest Windows client. Otherwise there's no game.
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2.4.2008 Vista SP1 to Cure the Vista RTM Wow Hangover
When Windows Vista was unleashed in January 31, 2008, Microsoft was promising performance, security, innovation, all wrapped up under an umbrella of a Wow user experience.
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11.4.2008 Vista-For-Free coupon with Vista ready PC's
Microsoft and the world's leading PC vendors have reached an agreement to promote the long-awaited Vista OS by offering PC buyers worldwide a free upgrade coupon, as a way of encouraging them to buy a Vista-capable PC as early as possible, according to market sources, citing information leaked from Taiwan-based PC makers.
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11.10.2006 Can Vista SP1 help polish Vista’s tarnished image?
Call it complaining. Call it whining. The end result is the same: Windows Vista’s image is tarnished. And it’s corroding more and more rapidly as the weeks are going on. Thanks to pacpis for this news.
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21.8.2007 Vista SP1 Features the Same Sins as Windows Vista
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 comes with the same sins as Windows Vista. The service pack is not even out the door, and is already putting users at risk.
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16.1.2008 Will Vista SP1 Go Where Vista Never Went? Even with XP SP3 and Windows 7?
Throughout 2007, it became painfully clear to Microsoft that the main competitor for Windows Vista was not Apple's Mac OS X or even the open source Linux operating system but Windows XP, and, in fact, specifically XP SP2.
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1.3.2008 New Vista AutoPatcher - Vista update toolkit Alpha
Vista Update Toolkit Alpha (Windows Vista Updates Downloader) is a FREE program which downloads updates directly from Microsoft. All files are very useful with vLite!
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26.9.2008 Vista SP1 – Microsoft Could Not Have Given Less – Vista SP2 Anyone?
Microsoft had the chance to position the first service pack for Windows Vista as a panacea for the operating system, giving the platform nothing less than a fresh start and another take at the Wow.
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3.10.2007 Vista SP1 Rolling Over for Vista SP2
Vista SP1 did not do the trick for your RTM copy of the operating system? While such a scenario is highly unlikely, Microsoft is getting closer and closer to taking Windows Vista to the next level, again.
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7.12.2008 Vista SP1: Indictment of Vista 1.0?
Microsoft’s announcement that it is preparing a Vista Service Pack 1 beta in two weeks is curious on many levels. Although Microsoft delivers improvements via service packs I can’t help but consider Vista SP1 a do-over.
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30.8.2007 Vista RTM vs. Vista SP2
We are all well aware of the limping start of Vista on the OS market. Despite the fact that its launch had been highly anticipated for a good while, contrary to all Microsoft expectations, Vista was received with great reluctance and unwillingness on the part of XP fans.
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13.12.2008 Microsoft: Vista! Vista! Vista!
Microsoft has a single generalized answer to all life's problems, but especially end user protection, and that answer is of course Windows Vista.
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14.8.2007 Windows XP SP3 Twice as Fast as Windows Vista – Leaves Vista SP1 in the Dust
Forget about Windows Vista. And forget about Windows Vista SP1. Microsoft's latest Windows client has been quite sluggish to begin with. This in both consumer adoption and in terms of the performance it delivers.
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27.11.2007 Windows Vista Wow! Forget about Vista SP1, XP SP3 and Windows 7!
That's it, forget about Windows XP Service Pack 3, about Windows 7, the next iteration of Windows and even about Windows Vista Service Pack 1.
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1.2.2008 PC buyers: 'Vista Capable' machines weren't Vista capable
How misleading was Microsoft's "Windows Vista Capable" campaign? Misleading enough for a judge to approve a federal trial.
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9.8.2007Microsoft: No Backdoor In
Vista, Ever
Microsoft late last week began
to publicly deny reports that
it was building a backdoor
into Windows Vista in order
for governments to gain access
to private files. A Microsoft
developer said the official
line is that the company does
not, and would not, create
backdoors...
betanews.com -
07.03.2006P2P backdoor spills personal info on Supreme Court Justice
Personal data from over two thousand clients of a Virginia investment firm was obtained through a Limewire backdoor and made available for over six
months before coming to light...
betanews.com -
10.07.2008Microsoft: Vista Won't Get a
Backdoor
Windows Vista won't have a
backdoor that could be used by
police forces to get into
encrypted files, Microsoft has
stressed. In February, a BBC
News story suggested that the
British government was in
discussions with Microsoft
over backdoor access to the
operating system. A backdoor
is a method of bypassing
normal authentication to gain
access to a computer without
to the PC user knowing. But
Microsoft has now quelled the
suggestion that law
enforcement might get such
access.
Kudos to boytoy
for submitting this
article!
jcxp.net -
05.03.2006DNS Exploit Used to Plant Backdoor on Windows Servers
Security engineers are
confirming that customers
whose Windows servers were
confirmed penetrated by a
version of the recent DNS
service exploit, were infected
by any of three variants of
backdoor worms identified by
Sophos as W32/Delbot...
betanews.com -
19.04.2007Microsoft denies handing law enforcement 'backdoor' keys
Some bloggers this week are suggesting that Microsoft is handing out "backdoor keys" to Windows security to police officers. Although
Microsoft is denying the bulk of the rumors, a full explanation still seems a bit elusive...
betanews.com -
01.05.2008Microsoft Disputes WMF
Backdoor Claim
Microsoft has directly
responded to accusations by
security researcher Steve
Gibson who claimed the company
intentionally left the Windows
Meta File vulnerability open
as some kind of
"backdoor." The
company says the function in
question exists due to legacy
code, not some nefarious
intent...
betanews.com -
14.01.2006Backdoor Trojans are Biggest Windows Threat
Zombies continue to be the
biggest threat to Windows
security, Microsoft said
Monday. During the six months
from January to June 2006,
over 43,000 new variants of
so-called "backdoor
Trojans" were discovered...
betanews.com -
25.10.2006New Vista Random Numbers to Include NSA Backdoor?
Bruce Schneier: Microsoft
has added the random-number generator
Dual_EC-DRBG to Windows Vista, as part of SP1. Yes, this is the same RNG that
could have an NSA backdoor.
It's not enabled by default, and my advice is to never enable it. Ever.
winbeta.org -
18.12.2007'Frankenstein' Attack Hits
AIM
Instant messaging users warned
of worm that installs backdoor
on infected machines...
pcworld.com -
02.11.2005Developer Shipped Backdoor Hack With G-Archiver for GMail
A serious Gmail account hacking backdoor, has been found in the popular Gmail archiving software
G-Archiver. This application, in all its innocence, allows you to download and backup all emails from your GMail account. But
apparently the developer included the code to send an email to his email ID with all usernames and passwords!
G-Archiver has posted this
explanation of what happened: "It is urgent that you remove the current version of G-Archiver from your computer, and change your Gmail account
password right away. What happened was that a member of our development team had inserted coding used for testing G-Archiver in the debug version and
forgot to delete it in the final release version."
Hopefully, G-Archiver will release a new version very soon.
neowin.net -
11.03.2008MySpace Bug Leaks 'Private' Teen Photos to Voyeurs
A backdoor in MySpace's architecture allows anyone who's interested to see the photographs of some users with private profiles -- including
those under 16 -- despite assurances from MySpace that those pictures can only be seen by people on a user's friends list. Info about the backdoor
has been circulating on message boards for months. Since the glitch emerged last fall, it has spawned a cottage industry of ad-supported websites that
make it easy to access the photographs, spurring self-described pedophiles and run-of-the-mill voyeurs to post photos pilfered from private MySpace
accounts.
Read full
story.....
neowin.net -
18.01.2008Boxee RSS feature gives Hulu a backdoor
Open source media center Boxee may have officially lost Hulu, but the latest alpha update adds another way to watch the service's videos
..
betanews.com -
07.03.2009McAfee says Vista's StickyKeys could be misused
A Windows feature designed to
simplify computing for
disabled users could be
misused in Vista, a McAfee
researcher reported Monday.
Attackers could use this
feature, called StickyKeys, to
trick a user into launching
unauthorized software on the
Vista machine, according to
Vinoo Thomas, a McAfee
researcher who blogged about
the issue on Monday.
StickyKeys is launched when a
Windows user hits a modifier
key like Shift or Alt five
times. This makes the modifier
key "sticky" so commands
like Shift-F1 can be launched
without having to hit two keys
simultaneously.
An
attacker could replace the
sethc.exe file used to launch
StickyKeys with some other
executable, like the Windows
command utility, Thomas wrote.
This backdoor vulnerability
was already known to exist in
Windows 2000 and Windows XP,
according to Thomas.Although
it is interesting that Vista
is also vulnerable, it's not
clear how useful the backdoor
would be to an attacker
because one must first gain
access to the machine in order
to replace the StickyKeys
file. Thomas believes that it
could be used by an inside
attacker to bypass log-in on
terminal servers and
workstations. Microsoft
executives were not
immediately available to
comment on the issue.
neowin.net -
13.03.2007India still wants RIM to open a backdoor to BlackBerry security
For several months, Indian security officials have wanted Research in Motion to decrypt BlackBerry-delivered e-mails so the government may have access
to them, should the need arise. Both sides could reach a solution as soon as tomorrow...
betanews.com -
29.05.2008Zero-Day PowerPoint Exploit
Surfaces
Symantec on Wednesday issued
an advisory about a new trojan
that takes advantage of an
undocumented vulnerability in
PowerPoint to infect a
victim's computer with a
backdoor. The malware, dubbed
Trojan.PPDropper.B, uses a
malformed string to execute
code...
betanews.com -
14.07.2006Another Office 2003 Virus
The zero-day vulnerability
that was discovered earlier
this week is now used.
According to a recent Symantec
security bulletin,
Trojan.Mdropper.H can affect
Word 2003-equipped PCs, but
can also crash instances of
Word 2002 (Office XP) and Word
2000, without harming the
system itself.
Though, according to that
same Symantec security
bulletin: "Currently,
observed attacks are limited
to attacks against select
targets", "The Trojan begins
as a Word document email
attachment that includes an
embedded executable; when the
attachment is opened, a
backdoor application is
installed and the system is
compromised. The backdoor is
hidden with a rootkit, and the
backdoor opens a
communications channel to a
malicious Web site, for which
it waits for instructions. The
Trojan has numerous functions,
including taking and
transmitting desktop
screenshots, by which
financial data or passwords
might be stolen."
The following
operating systems may be
affected by the trojan:
Windows 2000, 95, 98, Me, NT
4.0, XP, and Windows Server
2003. Microsoft is apparently
working on a fix to this
vulnerability, and that it
should be available to
download through Microsoft
Update by June 13, the next
scheduled monthly update
shipping date. Meanwhile,
Symantec recommends to block
any Word attachment you can
get.
jcxp.net -
22.05.2006Vista encryption 'no threat' to computer forensics
Security advances in Windows
Vista are unlikely to
frustrate cybercrime
investigation, according to a
leading computer forensics
firm. Enterprise and Ultimate
editions of Vista include a
feature that provides data
volume encryption called
BitLocker Drive Encryption.
Suggestions that BitLocker
contains a backdoor allowing
law enforcement agencies
automatic access to encrypted
volumes have been robustly
denied by Microsoft.
But that doesn't
necessarily mean the
availability of Vista will
mean the widespread adoption
of disc encryption
technologies that will
frustrate law enforcement
investigations in computer
crime, including trafficking
in images of child abuse,
computer hacking, industrial
espionage and other offences.
For one thing, in two of its
three modes of operation
BitLocker requires a
cryptographic hardware chip
called a Trusted Platform
Module and a compatible BIOS.
These chips are yet to become
widely available much less
deployed. The third mode
requires a user to insert a
USB device that contains a
startup key in order to boot
the protected OS.
neowin.net -
02.02.2007Did NSA Put a Secret Backdoor in New Encryption Standard?
Random numbers are critical for cryptography: for encryption keys, random authentication challenges, initialization vectors, nonces, key-agreement
schemes, generating prime numbers and so on. Break the random-number generator, and most of the time you break the entire security system. Which is
why you should worry about a new random-number standard that includes an algorithm that is slow, badly designed and just might contain a backdoor for
the National Security Agency.
Generating random numbers isn't easy, and researchers have discovered lots of
problems and attacks over the years. A recent
paper found a flaw in the Windows 2000 random-number generator. Another
paper found flaws in the Linux random-number generator. Back in 1996, an early version of SSL was
broken because of flaws in its random-number generator. With John Kelsey and Niels Ferguson in 1999,
I co-authored
Yarrow, a random-number generator based on
our own cryptanalysis work. I improved this design four years later -- and renamed it Fortuna --
in the book
Practical Cryptography, which I co-authored with Ferguson.
winbeta.org -
15.11.2007WGA Update Goes Phishing
The message uses a little Windows Genuine Advantage fear mongering to cajole end users to download a fake update that realy is a backdoor Trojan. The
message warns: "Please update your P.C. in maximum 12 hours otherwise your Windows will be Expired." Windows is going to expire alright, after it
has been eaten by RATs, as in remote-access Trojans.
Microsoft doesn't solicit updates via e-mail. But how many people won't know
this? Now that my teenage daughter is doing MySpace, I've reduced her Vista privileges. She gripes about my having to enter in administrator
passwords, but malware-spiked MySpace pages and phishing e-mails like the aforementioned one have me concerned.
neowin.net -
22.01.2008ISPs to blame for new worm affecting MSN users
ISPs could kill a new worm
that is spreading rapidly via
MSN Messenger, according to
security experts.
The worm, called
Backdoor.IRCBot.gen, spreads
by sending file transfer
requests to a victim's
contact list. Once accepted, a
malicious file is executed on
the recipients computer, which
gives criminals control of the
infected computer.
Experts say that in
most cases, IM worms send
files to all the user's
contacts without their
knowledge and the only way to
verify the authenticity of the
file is to check with the
person who is supposed to have
sent it.
James Turner, security
consultant for
Australian-based research firm
IBRS, claims ISPs could stop
the worm if they tried. ..
winbeta.org -
02.08.2007
