back to article Microsoft's memory randomization security defense is a little busted in Windows 8, 10

A Carnegie-Mellon CERT researcher has discovered that Microsoft broke some use-cases for its Address Space Layout Randomisation (ASLR) mechanism, designed to severely hamper hackers' attempts to exploit security bugs. The programming blunder is simple: as of Windows 8, a flaw in Microsoft's system-wide mandatory ASLR …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It seems to me...

    some of them widely-denigrated "web programs" are tested more thoroughly than Windows. Maybe they need some "full-stack" developers?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It seems to me...

      "sysadmins can set a registry value to force bottom-up ASLR (a wonderful task if you're in charge of a fleet of machines);"

      It makes little difference how many machines under Windows. It takes about 20 seconds to create and apply a GPO setting to everything ...

      1. Korev Silver badge

        Re: It seems to me...

        >> "sysadmins can set a registry value to force bottom-up ASLR (a wonderful task if you're in charge of a fleet of machines);"

        > It makes little difference how many machines under Windows. It takes about 20 seconds to create and apply a GPO setting to everything ...

        That's what I thought whilst reading it too; however testing all your applications will take a lot longer than that...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It seems to me...

      I will only be satistifed if MongoDB is fully integrated into Windows to ensure web-scale, high-turnaround, low latency Cortanification.

      (This kind of article really need a bit of diagrams, really. Not necessarily UML, but still)

      1. TheVogon

        Re: It seems to me...

        "I will only be satistifed if MongoDB is fully integrated into Windows to ensure web-scale, high-turnaround, low latency Cortanification."

        Windows does already support piping to NUL !

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: It seems to me...

        Things are getting creepy... Cortanification, Californication?

        Please excuse me while I'm going to check if all my doors and windows are locked...

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Working as intended? [Joke Icon]

      This seems to be qorking perfectly. When the api makes a request for a random number,"4" is returned.

  2. TReko
    WTF?

    Negligence or malicious?

    So all applications using mandatory ASLR are affected, but those that have the less secure "opt-in" setting are not.

    And no one has noticed this since Windows 8 was released since 2012? Loading the app in a simple debugger or Microsoft's Process Explorer will show the base address and no one noticed?

    It boggles the mind. Either a lot less testing has been done on Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 or the tin-foil hat brigade have reason to be paranoid, especially given that it only affected the "mandatory" ASLR.

    1. a_yank_lurker

      Re: Negligence or malicious?

      Probably both. Slurp has be skimping on testing for awhile as evidence by the late alpha releases of Bloat 10 given to the masses, got negligence covered. As a result 'telemetry' is used to getting data from the alpha testers (users) which can get all sorts of juicy details for various doughnut eaters, got malicious covered.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Or for those not proficient in setting bits in binary registry values (such as myself),..."

    Better to have a "Yes" or "No" in a Text file

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Better to have a "Yes" or "No" in a Text file"

      Well, no it isn't. Can you set ACLs on individual fields in a text file? Or easily audit changes only to specific settings by specific users? Or find a setting without having to parse the file?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Can you set ACLs on individual fields in a text file?

        Security vs maintainability, but I'm afraid you may trust MS to do things right a bit too much.

        Or easily audit changes only to specific settings by specific users?

        Yup. For years. Text processing and diff came from the Unix world, after all, and it's optimised for it.

        Or find a setting without having to parse the file?

        So, pray, how will Windows dig up this value? Do they just magically hide in the OS without a convenient file around them to make backup and recovery easy? You do know that a DB is in the end also just files, yes?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          "Security vs maintainability, but I'm afraid you may trust MS to do things right a bit too much."

          Configuration database solutions have substantial advantages for both.

          "Yup. For years."

          Oh, so do tell me how you would audit a change to say ONLY Setting 2 including who changed it and before and after values in:

          Setting 1 = 1

          Setting 2 = 2

          Setting 3 = 3

          Without resorting to complex third party software like a version control system?

          "So, pray, how will Windows dig up this value?"

          It uses a btree type database. It doesn't have to parse say white space, comments, or most of the data to find something - it can very rapidly find just the fields needed.

          "without a convenient file around them to make backup and recovery easy?"

          The Windows Registry is fully transactional with DB log files, snapshots and rollback capability built in.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Without resorting to complex third party software like a version control system?

            Woah! Recommending against revision control, even passively, is extremely bad.

            If you think it's complex, used at the last resort, then find another job.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              "Woah! Recommending against revision control, even passively, is extremely bad."

              He said version control, not revision control

              "If you think it's complex, used at the last resort, then find another job."

              It just not needed when you can granular permissions, a concept of transactions / rollback and detailed / integrated auditing like on the Windows registry.

      2. Dan 55 Silver badge
        FAIL

        Can you set ACLs on individual fields in a text file?

        You can't do that in the registry either. The finest grain thing you can set a permission on is a key. A text file in the user's home directory is the key. That has permissions and ACLs.

        Or easily audit changes only to specific settings by specific users?

        Only the current user should be able to change a setting in HKCU anyway. Are you saying it's good thing that any user can change stuff in another user's HKU or HKLM instead of an administrator?

        Registry ACLs came along later to try and bring some degree of control to the registry free-for-all.

        Or find a setting without having to parse the file?

        You use a library dedicated to the task. In the Windows world I assume it's much better because you can use a magic unicorn to parse the registry?

        That's a Windows 3.11 level legacy solution and Windows moved away from that type of rubbish text file solution for most OS configs a long time ago...

        The registry was in Windows 3.

        Of all the things you could choose to like about Windows, you chose the registry. It's monolithic, corruptible, binary, is not removed when the app is removed, and even MS would rather you used %APPDATA%. Now excuse me, there's a popup advert vying for my attention saying I need to run a registry cleaner.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          "You can't do that in the registry either. The finest grain thing you can set a permission on is a key."

          OK, you are correct that a key can contain multiple values, but quite often it is just a single value, and if it does contain multiple values then they will be very closely related together giving a level of granular control simply not available on *nix.

          "A text file in the user's home directory is the key. That has permissions and ACLs."

          Lol, nothing like it. A typical *nix text config file for a specific function would typically translate to dozens or even hundreds of keys under the Windows registry, and you still have zero auditing of what exactly was changed from what by who like you do under Windows.

          "The registry was in Windows 3."

          No it wasn't. It didn't arrive until Windows 3.1 - and then only for COM based components. In Windows 3.1 configuration was primarily stored in text files (INI files) - hence the reference to Windows 3.1 having a crap config storage solution.

          "Of all the things you could choose to like about Windows, you chose the registry., "

          I didn't say I particularly liked it. Just that it's way better than using multiple text files.

          "It's monolithic"

          Having all your data in one place and in a standard format is a massive advantage over scattered across the system in differing formats!

          "corruptible,"

          Far more fault tolerant than say a text file - it's transactional with snapshots and rollback.

          "binary,"

          So is much faster to access and parse than a text file

          "is not removed when the app is removed,"

          Well that's up to applications. It's of no real consequence even if they don't clean up properly. Registry performance is not size dependent. The registry also has no practical scalability limits you are likely to hit. That's no different from *nix applications leaving config files on the system after removal...

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          "You can't do that in the registry either. The finest grain thing you can set a permission on is a key. A text file in the user's home directory is the key. That has permissions and ACLs."

          Nope. A typical Registry key might be say

          HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\adsi\Options\excel.exe

          or

          HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters\PersistentRoutes

          That's WAY more granular than the per file model of Linux.

        3. TheVogon

          "You use a library dedicated to the task. In the Windows world I assume it's much better because you can use a magic unicorn to parse the registry?"

          The Windows registry is a binary b-tree database so you don't have to read the whole file to find a value so it's way faster and more efficient than parsing a text file, you have single config repository in a specific location, you have improved system integrity due to fully atomic transactions and you have strongly typed data formats.

      3. Anonymous Bullard

        Or find a setting without having to parse the file?

        A person: "grep", "find" (I think.. on windows), text editors have a search, so does explorer.

        Software: Get all settings at once, not individually. You're only parsing a file that contains settings for your applications, usually just key-value pairs. Your computer has just parsed several files that are much more complex than most config files when you loaded this page.

        Really, the registry is one of the things I hate most about Windows. It's made worse by the fact that regedit is so limited... it still doesn't even support copy+paste, searches limited to a key... but at least you can export it to a text file and re-import it.. It's hardly changed since Windows 95

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            I get the feeling the last time you looked at RegEdit was in 1995.

            The whole Windows Registry and Regedit is still a horrible, deliberately and unnecessarily complex way of holding settings. Would it really have been too much trouble to use clear and obvious variable names and values? Obviously the answer is "yes, because we're Microsoft".

            Regedit was, is and probably always will be a dog of an interface, and the actual content of the registry is the work of a sociopathic lunatic. Having all configuration data in a single (?) hierarchical database is fine by me, but there's no excuse for wilfully making it risk and difficult to change things for users with admin privileges.

            1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Linux

      Better to have a "Yes" or "No" in a Text file

      The only problem with text files is that they are not transactional, neither in part, nor in full. And that there are so many conventions, Security can be easily inherited from that old-school document database, the "filesystem" though.

      Also, hey: Augeas is a configuration editing tool. It parses configuration files in their native formats and transforms them into a tree. Configuration changes are made by manipulating this tree and saving it back into native config files.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Security can be easily inherited from that old-school document database, the "filesystem" though."

        Not on a per field or per value basis it can't. If you want to lock down just one setting - you can't easily do that on *nix. It's a very limited and sucky security model compared to Windows.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          If you want to lock down just one setting

          Why would you want to do that? Seriously, why would you let everyone change settings apart from one?

          But anyway, you can just pull different settings from different files, with the permissions you desire. That's how vhosts where configured on a per-user basis.

          You can still store the settings in a database, use all the per-field permissions you desire, and spit out the config file from that.

          It's a very limited and sucky security model compared to Windows

          What makes you say that? The security model is simple, easy to understand, and hard to screw up. Owner, Group, World. That fits most use cases. Anything beyond that, use ACLs.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            "Why would you want to do that? Seriously, why would you let everyone change settings apart from one?"

            It's very common to want to stop users changing a specific setting. For instance to lock down the security settings tab in IE. Just because you cant do this in *nix doesn't mean it doesn't have a use!

            "You can still store the settings in a database, use all the per-field permissions you desire, and spit out the config file from that."

            So a version control system. An extra layer to fix what you should have in the first place, and it still doesn't provide granular auditing or ACLs if someone then edits the files directly...

            "The security model is simple, easy to understand, and hard to screw up. Owner, Group, World. That fits most use cases. Anything beyond that, use ACLs."

            Which on *nix cant be applied to anything smaller than a file. And can't block root (admin) from access. In Windows you have a far more granular and pervasive solution that can properly lock down systems even from admins when needed.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Not on a per field or per value basis it can't. If you want to lock down just one setting - you can't easily do that on *nix. It's a very limited and sucky security model compared to Windows.

          If it's really critical it gets its own file, with its own access rights, and that has been done since the days of shadow passwords. Version control is available on any Unix setup, so that's not an issue either, but you then still end up with something that is easy, simple to understand, structured and resistant to errors that would kill a Windows platform.

          The whole Registry hairball is far too complex, error prone and sensitive to bit rot for anything that has to stay up for any length of time, and, astonishingly, has not really improved over time. The next issue is that it's actually a database so I need to keep a service online for it.

          In *nix I halt that nonsense at file level and only need system resources when a service actually needs to consult the file during startup or when it gets an order to refresh its configuration. Again, simple before complex, and resource efficient to boot.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Augeas is a configuration editing tool. It parses configuration files in their native formats and transforms them into a tree. Configuration changes are made by manipulating this tree and saving it back into native config files."

        Great, so that "fixes" the bodge of *nix config files everywhere to a small degree, but it's still not a proper native solution.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          "Great, so that "fixes" the bodge of *nix config files everywhere to a small degree, but it's still not a proper native solution."

          You and/or other ACs above are suggesting that all the wonderful features of 'modern' Windows are like the glossy paintwork, smart uniforms, flashy food on a great ocean liner ( that someone forgot to actually finish closing all the holes below the waterline )

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            "You and/or other ACs above are suggesting that all the wonderful features of 'modern' Windows are like the glossy paintwork, smart uniforms, flashy food on a great ocean liner "

            Trying us that Linux has better security and configuration storage than Windows is like trying to tell us the Windows ship is sinking when the Linux ship is already at the bottom of the Atlantic...

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Trying us that Linux has better security and configuration storage than Windows is like trying to tell us the Windows ship is sinking when the Linux ship is already at the bottom of the Atlantic...

              Of course, that's why all serious outfits won't touch Windows for production with a 10ft barge pole. You know, Google, Amazon, Facebook, just the tiny ones who are under constant, 24/7 attack. What got hacked again? Oh yes, banks. Equifax. Others - typically via insider breaches enabled via the wonderful *cough* security *cough* that Windows offers.

              But hey, thanks for the laugh.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                "You know, Google,"

                LOL talking of good laughs, have you seen the sheer number holes and the constant malware problems on Android? And the number of vulnerabilities on their supposed best effort at security Chrome OS?!

                "Others - typically via insider breaches enabled via the wonderful *cough* security *cough* that Windows offers."

                So you mean like the vast data leaks from Uber, Yahoo, Sony, MySpace, LinkedIn, Maddison, NetEase, Adobe, Badoo, etc. that were all based on Open Source / Linux compromises? Internet facing websites are 4 times less likely to get successfully hacked if they run Windows than Linux.

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  "And the number of vulnerabilities on their supposed best effort at security Chrome OS?!"

                  Chrome OS since it's initial release in 2010 has less total vulnerabilities than Windows 10 has since it's release in 2015. What's more interesting is Windows 10 also has a far higher proportion of code execution and privilege escalation vulnerabilities.

                  Source: cvedetails.com

            2. oldcoder

              "at the bottom"?

              When it runs Google, Facebook, Amazon? and even runs Azure networking?

              99+% of the supercomputers, all the stock markets...

              Microsoft wishes it had that "bottom".

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Microsoft wishes it had that "bottom".

                Microsoft has 75% of on premise servers, over 95% of business PCs and they overtook AWS in annual cloud revenue run rate 2 quarters ago, so I don't think they are worrying any time soon...

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Microsoft has 75% of on premise servers

                  .. which don't seem to work that well if recent bank troubles are anything to judge it by, and I note with interest that you're very careful to exclude the numbers that matter*: those systems exposed raw to the Net

                  over 95% of business PCs

                  .. which it is just ever so slightly starting to lose to stupid, silly Macs in companies who actually know about numbers and include labour, downtime and breach risk and resource cost when they calculate TCO..

                  * which suggests you must actually work for Redmond as that has been their MO for decades..

                  1. Anonymous Coward
                    Anonymous Coward

                    "which don't seem to work that well if recent bank troubles are anything to judge it by"

                    Erm - but that was a large *nix based back office / batch system that fell over if you mean TSB??

                    ".. which it is just ever so slightly starting to lose to stupid, silly Macs in companies who actually know about numbers and include labour, downtime and breach risk and resource cost when they calculate TCO.."

                    Well it hasn't impacted market share so far - and companies that care about that generally use Windows via VDI. The cost of Macs on the desktop is way higher. Not to mention the vastly restricted range of software that is available.

                    1. This post has been deleted by its author

                    2. Anonymous Coward
                      Anonymous Coward

                      The cost of Macs on the desktop is way higher. Not to mention the vastly restricted range of software that is available.

                      No twice, but I already illustrated that. Plus, software is cheap. People are expensive, so if a company puts usability first (less of late, but it's still a considerable distance ahead of Windows) that is a far more beneficial aspect of a platform. As for limited range, you clearly haven't been near the Mac world for a while.

                      That said, please enjoy Windows. If I support LBGT rights it would be churlish to exclude masochists..

                  2. Anonymous Coward
                    Anonymous Coward

                    "numbers that matter*: those systems exposed raw to the Net"

                    You mean like Netcraft now showing that 50% of websites run on Windows / IIS?

              2. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Microsoft wishes it had that "bottom".

                Well, it's got an a*se. Wait, what were we talking about again?

            3. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              "...trying to tell us the Windows ship is sinking when the Linux ship is already at the bottom of the Atlantic."

              There are many, many more devices in the world running Linux than Windows. Just saying...

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                "There are many, many more devices in the world running Linux than Windows. Just saying..."

                Sure - must be why I keep reading about Linux based bot nets, Android Play Store malware, etc. etc.

                That Windows has a better configuration storage solution and that it's security ACL and auditing model is more capable, granular and in depth than *nix shouldn't be in any doubt to someone with detailed knowledge of both.

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Sure - must be why I keep reading about Linux based bot nets, Android Play Store malware, etc. etc.

                  1 - Linux bot nets: small in comparison to the infestation that is supported by breached Windows machines. I can understand why Linux machines are more desirable though - even for bad guys, uptime matters.

                  2 - Android <-> Linux, not by a long shot. Android was merely created to get people to submit their personal information to Google without knowing it, something that AFAIK Microsoft pioneered..

                2. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  "That Windows has a better configuration storage solution and that it's security ACL and auditing model is more capable, granular and in depth than *nix shouldn't be in any doubt to someone with detailed knowledge of both."

                  I have a detailed knowledge of both, and agree that in some respects the registry is better for the reasons you state above. I also realise that in the real world there's many ways of skinning a cat, and that there's no practical downside to text based config either, provided it's managed properly.

                  Why I usually prefer deploying Linux over Windows in the real world is that Linux is far more modular than Windows (FUD about monolithic kernels non-withstanding) and I'm able to easily take advantage of this when deploying and managing it (i.e. install just the packages and libraries I need, leave out ones I don't at a far more granular level that Windows offers). It also comes with a hell of a lot less licensing headaches and cost (yes I know what RHEL costs, but I also have a plethora of other options that are cheaper or free - I don't use RHEL).

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Also, hey: Augeas is a configuration editing tool. It parses configuration files in their native formats and transforms them into a tree. Configuration changes are made by manipulating this tree and saving it back into native config files.

        To paraphrase a comedian, as far as I can tell, the tree Windows uses must be derived from a cannabis plant.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Better to have a "Yes" or "No" in a Text file"

      But then you would end up with a mess of text files - probably scattered across the filesystem. That's a Windows 3.11 level legacy solution and Windows moved away from that type of rubbish text file solution for most OS configs a long time ago...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Windows moved away from that type of rubbish text file solution for most OS configs a long time ago.."

        Windows moved away from that type of rubbish solution for most OS configs a long time ago..

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well...

    I found that ASLR certainly consistently killed my Windows 7 AMD 1950X Threadripper system with BSOD's when I tried to copy more that 200MB across the network.

    Having turned it off I can now consistently copy almost 3GB of data before I get the BSOD.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Well...

      I would deduce that's not just ASLR, run a memory burn in test outside windows to be sure although technically you are using an unsupported CPU which could explain it.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Well...

        Well I'm not going to allow myself to be nudged into installing that Windows 10 Spy ware.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Well...

          I would not wish that on my worst enemy good sir.

        2. 9Rune5

          Re: Well...

          Either way, a BSOD is caused by either a bug in a device driver, faulty hardware or, as AC correctly points out, unsupported hardware. That a particular OS setting delays the time it takes before you hit a BSOD is neither here nor there: you haven't solved anything.

          The only sane options (in no particular order):

          1. Use Linux

          2. Upgrade to Windows 10

          3. Change hardware until you find something that works

          Run various benchmarks that stress CPU (SuperPI) and memory (sysinternals might have something, can't remember) and you'll probably be able to reproduce your BSOD quite readily. Or it is something completely different, like a naff NIC device driver.

          I used to be a Win7 holdout too. I upgraded to Win10 and never looked back. Win10 is a noticeable improvement and I highly recommend it.

          Insisting on running an OS that is on the fast track to obsolescence strikes me as a decidedly bad strategy.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            FAIL

            Re: Well...

            I upgraded to Win10

            ...

            running an OS that is on the fast track to obsolescence strikes me as a decidedly bad strategy

            Perhaps you should practice what you preach.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Well...

              "running an OS that is on the fast track to obsolescence strikes me as a decidedly bad strategy"

              Perhaps you should practice what you preach.

              Ouch, touchè :)

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Well...

              "running an OS that is on the fast track to obsolescence strikes me as a decidedly bad strategy

              Perhaps you should practice what you preach."

              Erm, but doesn't Windows 10 have the record for fastest OS take up ever, and has over 600 million installs? Doesn't sound like it's going to be obsolete any time soon.

        3. Jonathan 27

          Re: Well...

          Just make sure you never use Android, iOS or Mac OS. Wouldn't want to look like a huge hypocrite.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Well...

        My initial response of memory test whilst valid omitted something.

        Have you set your memory timings right? Are you trying to use XMP on AMD? That there might be your problem.

  5. bombastic bob Silver badge
    Megaphone

    yet ANOTHER reason

    to stick with windows 7!!!

    1. wallaby

      Re: yet ANOTHER reason

      Hate to agree with Bob (third time in a year - maybe I need to start taking the tablets).

    2. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

      Re: yet ANOTHER reason

      to stick with windows 7!!!

      Way ahead of you. I'm keeping my boss on Windows ME "for security reasons"

      :)

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: yet ANOTHER reason

      Yes, I love Windows too, bob.

    4. patrickstar

      Re: yet ANOTHER reason

      Win 10 is actually a major security improvement over 7...

      And unexpected behavior in a non-standard ASLR configuration isn't exactly the end of the world or a huge security lapse. I suspect the reason this wasn't noticed earlier is simply that there isn't much software left that's not built with DYNBASE (ASLR opt-in)...

      And the ONLY issue here is a user interface issue in Exploit Guard - nothing else.

  6. Nolveys

    Conversation at Microsoft during Windows 8 development

    "Hey, won't this change mess up some ASLR stuff?"

    "That'll be the least of the problems with this bag of shit."

    "Don't you think people will notice?"

    "That would be like noticing a slight yeast taste in beer after filtering it through a polyester couch after a house fire."

    1. anthonyhegedus Silver badge

      Re: Conversation at Microsoft during Windows 8 development

      You forgot the bit where someone said "but with these new tiles that replace menus, and this fantastic app store, not to mention the charms on the right, it'll bring about such a revolution in ease of use, obviousness and productivity acceleration that people will love us too much to care about any security aspect we've inadvertently forgotten about in the meantime".

      This was followed by the ceremonial drinking of the kool-aid.

      1. Not That Andrew

        Re: Conversation at Microsoft during Windows 8 development

        Flavor Aid

    2. hplasm
      Devil

      Re: Conversation at Microsoft during Windows 8 development

      "Don't you think people will notice?"

      "Do you think anyone will use this mess?"

    3. Adam 52 Silver badge

      Re: Conversation at Microsoft during Windows 8 development

      More like:

      "I'm just changing ASLR so that it's more obvious what the registry settings do"

      "OK. Just make sure the EMET team know."

      ...sometime later...

      "The EMET team has been disbanded because EMET is no longer a product. Didn't we have some dependency on them?"

      "Yes, but if EMET is dying it can't have been important."

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nelson Muntz

    We REALLY need his icon for stories like this.

    1. Not That Andrew
      Windows

      Re: Nelson Muntz

      I find the Windows User icon more apt for Windows OS Devs these days

  8. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge
    Thumb Down

    So, what with Intel chippery leaking secrets and Win8+10 not being genuwynely secure, shall we start the downgrade to Win7 on the desktop and OS/2 Warp LAN server (on Intel Pentium 2's) on the server side then?

    At least the networks will be nippy and fast enough until somebody finds a backdoor in routerland...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "So, what with Intel chippery leaking secrets "

      That applies to any OS btw.

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge
        Meh

        Which OS is stuck on x86?

        1. bazza Silver badge

          Which OS is stuck on x86?

          Er, OS X?

          Windows has grown an Arm variant quite recently, Linux is on everything, Solaris comes in Sparc flavours, and all the embedded OSes work on everything else too.

          1. Dan 55 Silver badge

            Windows has grown an Arm variant quite recently,

            Yes, one that restricts the Win32 API and is trapped a range of hardware that is being neglected by MS. Didn't work for Surface RT and isn't working for Windows Phone.

            When they come out with something that's more than vapourware perhaps we can say that Windows isn't trapped on Intel.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              " I sort-of assume that any exploit in CPU land would still have to understand the OS"

              Nope - this has a separate CPU and firmware. Whilst it can access the main CPU / RAM it doesn't have to.

              "Yes, one that restricts the Win32 API and is trapped a range of hardware that is being neglected by MS"

              You don't seem to know what you are talking about. Win32 is now fully supported on ARM by emulation. Microsoft have had Windows server running internally on Arm since 2014.

              1. patrickstar

                Older versions of Windows are available on a lot of platforms as well.

                Itanic, PPC, MIPS, Alpha, some archs I forgot...

              2. Dan 55 Silver badge

                You don't seem to know what you are talking about. Win32 is now fully supported on ARM by emulation. Microsoft have had Windows server running internally on Arm since 2014.

                And you don't know what vapourware means, AC.

                Unless I can buy it, it doesn't exist.

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  "And you don't know what vapourware means, AC.

                  Unless I can buy it, it doesn't exist."

                  You likely wont ever be able to buy it. However you will be able to rent it on Azure.

                  Windows on Arm at this point at least only really makes sense when you can add up the power savings at vast scale.

              3. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. Adam 52 Silver badge

        "That applies to any OS btw."

        I'm curious to know if it does. I sort-of assume that any exploit in CPU land would still have to understand the OS running on top in order to exploit it. So if you're running something obscure you might well be safe. Sure it's security through obscurity, but obscurity worked for Linux for years.

        1. Chemist

          "Sure it's security through obscurity, but obscurity worked for Linux for years."

          MS should also try publishing the source (from year 1 ) then - see how that works out

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            "MS should also try publishing the source (from year 1 ) then - see how that works out"

            They already do on request to enterprises, etc.

  9. Sp1tf1r3
    Go

    Here is the Microsoft response to the CERT/CC blog....

    https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/srd/2017/11/21/clarifying-the-behavior-of-mandatory-aslr/

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      As with most bugs found in MS software lately, it's not a bug, it's a feature.

      The reason for this is that EMET on Windows 7 enabled mandatory ASLR using a different setting versus what is now used on Windows 8 and above.

  10. Hans 1

    It is 2017

    ... and Windows manages to use more than 1Gb idle after a week of heavy load ... in fact, it was using 8Gb and as much was used in the page file, even after closing every single little gui app ... no, I only had a single non-MS service running, which was probably using 128Mb of RAM ....

    Address Space Layout Randomisation (ASLR) mechanism, designed to severely hamper hackers' attempts to exploit security bugs.

    The OS owns itself all by its own, no need to make it any worse ...

    DISCLAIMER: Linux and OS X user here, and OS X gave me the "bad habit" of rebooting every 6 months ... Linux never had a problem with that ...

    PS: The frequent notepad.exe patches that force a reboot or two are bad enough already ....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It is 2017

      "and Windows manages to use more than 1Gb idle after a week of heavy load "

      That's meaningless if it's not under heavy load and you have free RAM. Windows will cache everything it can.

      "... in fact, it was using 8Gb and as much was used in the page file, even after closing every single little gui app"

      So if it's in the page file it's not using RAM. Memory use is not just about open apps - Windows will cache and preload stuff if it has free resources...

  11. John 104

    sysadmins can set a registry value to force bottom-up ASLR, a wonderful task if you're in charge of a fleet of machines

    Said the writer who has obviously never administered anything other and a single Windows Desktop.

    1. TheVogon

      "Said the writer who has obviously never administered anything other and a single Windows Desktop."

      I'm pretty sure that they don't let journalists loose on proper computers. Probably he uses an ipad or a Mac!

  12. Jin

    (False ) sense of security, not security, matters to those people

    This tells that those people are not so much interested to offer security as to offer the false sense of security, which is more effective to dazzle consumers. We see a similar phenomenon in the case of biometrics that is said to offer higher security but actually only offers higher convenience at the sacrifice of security.

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