Microsoft's free anti-spyware hits market

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PatchGuard is somewhat reactionary, but it protects the user from themself

You're right, PatchGuard protects the system from malicious kernel drivers, so it is somewhat reactionary in nature.

But how do kernel drivers get installed? Only by someone with administrator privileges. PatchGuard protects against mistakes made by administrative users.

A properly configured system won't have you running as admin, so you won't be able to install malicious kernel drivers. In other words, if you were using the already-existing security mechanisms provided by NT since version 3.1 (the secure and robust user security model), you wouldn't need PatchGuard.

(I'm not making a statement about the *practicality* of using those security mechanisms, though in Vista they have made significant improvements via UAC.)

Remember, the primary purpose of such reactionary anti-malware products is to protect the user from themselves, not to protect against random security flaws in the OS. And I'd wager that the majority of all security-related problems people have with Windows, fall under the "protect the user from themselves" category.

Posted by: PB_z   Posted on: 10/24/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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