First Windows 8 Bootkit To Be Shown Next Week

While Microsoft have been trying as hard as they can to make Windows 8 as fool proof and un-hackable as possible, they are trying to achieve the impossible. There’s been much talk about a new secure boot method that Microsoft spoke about called UEFI which prevents any operating system that isn’t properly signed from running. This means that malicious software doesn’t get a chance to run while your booting up your system. However there’s been questions raised as to wheter or not this will prevent users from installing alternative OS’s such as Linux.

Now a security analyst – Peter Kleissner has created the first Windows 8 Bootkit which manages to get around this program somewhat. He’s planning on releasing it at the MalCon International Conference which is held in India next week. He made the discovery while doing research for a project to subvert the Windows security model. Peter has also discovered Bootkits for Windows XP,Windows Vista,Windows 7 and Windows Server 2003 in his past work.

To date, he’s managed to start the Bootkit from USB/CD which the UEFI is meant to prevent. Once the Bootkit infected the system, he was able to bypass the UAC (User Account Control) which enables it to run. It also patches the OS’s password feature which means a hacker can log on with any password.

However Kleissner claimed that his exploit doesn’t actually target the new Secure Boot feature (UEFI) directly. Instead it attacks the legacy boot procedure. But this also means that when Windows 8 machines hit the market and have UEFI built into them, they shouldn’t be vulnerable to this Bootkit. Instead it will be users who have Windows 8 installed a system that isn’t equipped with UEFI. Not many systems currently have UEFI so this will leave pretty much every machine that upgrades from Windows 7 vulnerable to the Bootkit.

There is one thing though. We are lucky that this was discovered before Windows 8 was released and that it wasn’t discovered by a criminal organisation. Kleissner said that he has passed on all the details to Microsoft and what he suggests they do so hopefully they’ll be able to patch up this exploit in now time.

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My First Impressions of the Windows 8 Preview

I’m sure each of the excellent writers here on Windows8News.com will want to share their thoughts on the new Windows 8 developer preview. I am no different and thought I would go over what I’ve found. As soon as the Windows 8 developer preview was available, I began preparing my main desktop for the install. Since this is only a preview and I will not be using this install as a primary OS, I simply took an old 40GB 7200rpm SATA hard drive and formatted it and used the .iso to install the new OS. Here are my thoughts on the first preview, keeping in mind that this isn’t even a beta and is missing many features and programs that will come installed on the beta and final builds.

Setup was a breeze. I wasn’t sure how Windows 8 install and setup could be any easier than Windows 7, but it just is. There may even be less menus and screens than the setup process for Windows Phone, but I’ll need to verify that. Actual install time was under 20 minutes with absolutely no setbacks. You’ll be brought to a screen where you can sign in with your Windows Live ID, this is very similar to Windows Phone. Once you enter your ID, the PC will begin setting up with your settings. In the preview, you do not have local access to mail and media via the new metro interface, so I was unable to check that stuff out. However, it is said that the beta will allow users to bring down all of their info and files from SkyDrive to populate their PC.

The performance of the Windows 8 developer preview is outstanding. Everything is incredibly smooth on my own PC. Scrolling and switching back and forth between programs and full screen apps is blazingly fast. Load and boot times are also very fast. Unoptimized, my PC boots from cold to working desktop within 15-20 seconds and this is with a normal 7200 rpm SATA hard drive.

I am using a desktop without a touchscreen monitor, so I cannot speak to the touch aspect of the Windows 8 preview. The controls for Windows 8 are very good, but they do take a little getting used to with a keyboard and mouse. Figuring out how to bring up the different toolbars and menus took tome time and some trial and error, but once you have the controls down, they are easy to use and seem well thought out. Windows 8 is chromeless, so all toolbars and menus are out of sight until you make some kind of gesture or mouse movement.

Pinning and resizing screens and apps is very intuitive. To scroll through your open apps, just pull from the left side of the screen and snap it to the side to open it side-by-side. (Note: this option is only available on higher resolution screens.)

The Start menu is the new Windows Phone-esque Start screen. Even when you are in classic Windows mode, pressing the Start button simply brings you back to your tile Start screen, so that takes a little getting used to. Programs and apps will populate automatically on your Start screen, but it is up to you to decide how they are to be positioned and displayed.

Every device I attached to my PC just worked with the preview. I tried a number of mice, keyboards, cable modems, monitors, usb drives, external hard drives and a webcam. All installed behind the scenes and worked flawlessly. I had zero issues with drivers and devices not working.

While I did come away with many positives with my time in Windows 8, I did find some issues and bugs, which is to be expected in a developer preview. I would often run into issues with Metro IE. Desktop IE worked fine without any problems, but some flash sites had trouble loading (radio.com for example). I would also experience some small freezing within the IE window, which would cease once I scrolled back through my available apps.

Overall, I am extremely excited about Windows 8 and cannot wait for the beta. I was worried about navigation in Windows 8 with a mouse and keyboard, but my worries were, for the most part, laid to rest as the process felt right after learning the navigation controls. I would have liked to see Microsoft ship the preview with more available features and apps, but this is just a dev preview, so I can’t hold that against Windows 8 at this point. Because of the limited functionality, I would never recommend that a user have this as their primary OS, but if you do have an extra hard drive lying around, it is certainly an experience worth having. Feel free to let me know what you guys think about what you’ve seen thus far as well as sharing any issues or hiccups you may have had.

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