INTRODUCING WINDOWS VISTA SECURITY

Abstract

Windows Vista introduces several additional barriers that aim to prevent malicious code from gaining access to the operating system kernel. This paper is intended to provide a technical review of their implementation. The kernel mode security enhancements in Windows Vista are quite substantial, resulting in a dramatic reduction of its overall attack surface. However, the researcher has identified certain weaknesses in the kernel enhancements that may be leveraged by malicious code to undermine these improvements.