Windows 7 users don’t have to leave Windows XP behind thanks to the Virtual PC feature available in some versions of the new operating system.
That can be a great help to users that need to run certain apps in XP mode, but according to a story in eSecurity Planet, a security firm has identified a bug it says makes using the virtualization software a risky proposition.
Security firm Core Security Technologies published a security advisory this week, including proof of concept code, that could let an attacker take control of applications running virtualized in Microsoft
’
s Virtual PC technology which is included in some versions of Windows 7.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) acknowledges that the hole is real but questions the severity of the problem.
According to Microsoft, while it may be possible to take over an application running inside a Windows virtual machine, the vulnerability as it stands now is not capable of letting an attacker break out into the host operating system.