Symantec has posted a run down of Vista’s ability to withstand current malware.
On average, about seventy percent of the malicious code executed under Windows Vista loaded successfully and executed without a crash or runtime error. Note that malicious code is always looking to latch on to another process, bind to a local port, or modify system critical files; thus, identifying a successful execution does not indicate it fully compromised the victim host. Out of the seventy percent that were able to execute, only about six percent of the samples were able to accomplish a full compromise and an even smaller number (four percent) were able to survive a reboot. The rest did not execute properly due to incompatibility, unhandled exceptions, or security restrictions.
Good job on the part of Microsoft. As with anything in this space it will only be a matter of time before the VXers adapt and adjust. But, for an initial OS offering out of the gate…good job.
Tags: Vista, Vista Security, Malware, Current Threats
