Security flaws spotted in Microsoft’s Vista

Early next year Microsoft will make its much-hyped Windows Vista available to the masses but before getting all excited about installing it, reconsider your decision. Computer security researchers and hackers have found serious problems with ‘the latest windows’ that was released to corporate customers late last month.

Earlier this month a Russian programmer described a flaw: hackers are allowed to increase a user’s privileges on all of the company’s recent operating systems, including Vista.

A Silicon Valley computer security firm uncovered five other vulnerabilities, including one serious fault in the software code underlying the company’s new Internet Explorer 7 browser. The threat related to IE7 is that Web users could become infected with malicious software if they visit certain sites.

“I don’t think people should become complacent,” said Nand Mulchandani, a vice president at Determina. “When vendors say a program has been completely rewritten, it doesn’t mean that it’s more secure from the get-go. My expectation is we will see a whole rash of Vista bugs show up in six months or a year.”

A comment was posted on Microsoft’s security information Web site which stated that the company was “closely monitoring” the vulnerability and had not seen any indication of security breaches involving the highly touted Vista system.

The company permits the privileges of a standard user account in Vista and other versions of Windows to be raised, allowing control of all of the operations of the computer.

As Windows became a victim of a new wave of Software attacks, Microsoft spent millions branding the Vista operating system as the most secure product it has produced.

Mike Reavey, operations manager of the Microsoft Security Response Center, after learning about the complaints, wrote, “While I know this is a vulnerability that impacts Windows Vista, I still have every confidence that Windows Vista is our most secure platform to date.”