Windows 7 Security PDF Guide

Vista had fewer problems than XP. Remember that it added kernel patch protection, where it was not going to allow things to go hook the kernel,
which was controversial because many third-party products did rely on patching the kernel in order to function. It hardened services and drivers by requiring that they be signed, which was arguably a good thing. Worked more for data execution prevention, DEP. Also offered Address Space Layout Randomization, ASLR, where it would deliberately load the various subcomponents of Windows at random locations in order to make it harder for malware to jump to a specific location in the kernel, which was one of the approaches that malware depends upon, for example as part of an exploit using a buffer overrun. You would jump into some place in the code that just happened to execute a few instructions that had a side effect of, for example, turning off User Account

Control or something.
 So they did a lot in order to improve the security when they went to Vista. Now, of course they also, talking about User Account Control, which was very controversial, they arguably maybe went too far. I think we could now say clearly and confidently that they did because they have backed away from some of the annoyance factor. But the good news is they really – they’ve done so in a way that is some reengineering rather than just turning things off. So they really haven’t backed out of the security that they were offering. So, but Windows 7 offers, running through the list briefly, and then we’ll go back and look at it in depth, is something called a “biometric framework” which is currently only supporting fingerprint readers. But it offers some good features. They have extended authentication protocols for small networks. They’ve improved BitLocker so that it may actually be useful. They’ve added BitLocker support for removable drives. They’ve really made some changes to User Account Control. There’s something new called AppLocker. They’ve fixed firewall policies to make them better. They’ve got DNSSEC, that Page 10 of 25
is, DNS security support in the client. They’ve fixed autoplay so that it defaults in the right way. And they’ve got something called Direct Connect that works with their built-in VPN client stuff.

So a bunch of things which they have – they’ve basically gone into, they’ve looked at. I would sort of call this, you know, like major improvements to – mostly major improvements to the security, to the existing functions in Vista. This is like Rev. 2, or Round 2. We’re going to – they took all the feedback and problems people had, and in many cases did some real reengineering of it. Now, one thing that’s new that I talked about first was the so-called “biometric framework.” They call it WBF, Windows Biometric Framework. It’s in response to the fact that an increasing number of machines, probably primarily principally laptops, have built-in fingerprint readers. I know that both of my ThinkPads do, as does this new tablet that I got, all have fingerprint readers. Under XP, which is what I’m using, it’s necessary for the vendor to basically bring along a whole collection of add-ons to make the fingerprint reader work.

And in fact one of the problems I had, remember we talked a while ago that I had my two employees, Sue and Greg, were out roaming around and wanting to get secure access to the GRC network. Well, I ended up doing the whole Perfect Paper Passwords technology to create a paper-based, one-time password system that would allow them to do that securely. But that was only after a great deal of frustration trying to figure out how I could write an application to use the fingerprint reader that we all already had in our laptops because I set them both up with these nice IBM Lenovo ThinkPads, all with fingerprint readers. Yet there’s no API, no Application Programming Interface, that would allow me in any way to say swipe your finger on the reader now, even though I’m running, swipe it again to prove that this is really you at the keyboard. Well, we get that in Windows 7. So…

Download Windows 7 Security PDF Guide


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October 31, 2009 | Posted in Software

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