For years, Windows has come under frequent attacks, thanks to hackers exploiting the operating system’s heap memory manager. However, in a new report released at the Black Hat conference here, engineers at Microsoft have done an admirable job of defending memory, making it more difficult than ever before for attackers to exploit.
Chris Valasek, a senior security researcher at Coverity and co-author of the research, explained the memory heap is a critical component of Windows. The memory manager is what tells applications that memory is or isn’t available for use.
“I’ve written a lot of heap exploits in my day and I wouldn’t want to be tasked with writing one for Windows 8 right now as there are a lot of hurdles you have to cross,” said Valasek. “It will take people a lot of time with a lot of skill to exploit.”
Read the full story at eWeek:
Windows 8 Security Garners Praise at Black Hat
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.