Windows 8 Secure Boot Defeated 205
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the what-took-so-long? dept.
from the what-took-so-long? dept.
jhigh writes "An Austrian security researcher is scheduled to release the first 'bootkit' for Windows 8 at the upcoming MalCon in Mumbai. This exploit loads in the MBR and stays memory resident until Windows loads, resulting in root access to the system. This allegedly defeats the new secure boot features in Windows 8's bootloader."
Windows or UEFI? (Score:5, Insightful)
Hey, buttholes, it's MY COMPUTER. (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm tired of these software vendors thinking that they own the rights to my hardware that I pay for.
Re:Horray! (Score:1, Insightful)
Yeah but the heydays are over the next time you run Windows Update. Be Aware!
Re:Could open your system up to malware like Linux (Score:3, Insightful)
dou dou linux?
Naming a flavor of linux after shit?
Re:UEFI doesn't have MBR (Score:4, Insightful)
Agreed - that's my first question.. looks like they "defeated" secure boot by not using it to start with.
Misleading title, Secure Boot not defeated (Score:5, Insightful)
Without a UEFI computer that is configured to boot only signed boot-loaders, this is not a valid test of the Secure Boot technology.
Basically, this is a case of "of course it works that way in this scenario, it's supposed to."
Re:Einstein, please answer this then (Score:4, Insightful)
Windows 8 does not require secure boot - but getting a "designed for Windows 8" sticker requires that the feature is present, and switched on, in your system as shipped.
The chilling effect that this will have on alternate operating system use (because it now requires more steps than just inserting a LiveCD / LiveUSB) is quite aside from the security implications of defeating the Windows 8 or UEFI bootloader though.