Newly discovered Windows kernel flaw bypasses UAC
 

Last week an exploit for a Windows kernel flaw was published by an unknown source. Presumably as a joke, details of the flaw, along with proof-of-concept code, were published on Code Project. Code Project is a programmer peer support community, containing many tutorials and useful snippets of code to assist developers. Malware developers are not the usual target audience for posts made to the site, and so perhaps unsurprisingly, the article has been removed.

The flaw is a privilege escalation vulnerability. Anyone who can run code on a Windows system can elevate her privileges to the highest level, and accordingly install back doors, compromise sensitive data, and so on. The flaw lies in a critical Windows driver called win32k.sys. The driver inappropriately handles certain data stored in the registry—data that is stored on a per-user basis, and hence accessible to any unprivileged program. The proof-of-concept code uses this flaw to elevate the privileges of the user running the demo code; it could just as well be used to install a back door or other malware.

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