Microsoft denies flaw in Vista

Microsoft has confirmed that Vista can be affected by malware from 2004, but argues this is not a flaw in the operating system.

Security vendor Sophos reported on Thursday that Microsoft’s Vista is vulnerable to at least three pieces of widespread malware, two of which date back to 2004. At least three well-known internet worms ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù labelled Stratio-Zip, Netsky-D and MyDoom-O by Sophos ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù are able to execute on the operating system, according to Sophos.

However, because these attacks rely on user interaction to execute the code, Microsoft has denied this is a flaw. Microsoft said that these attacks rely on social-engineering techniques to be successful.

“Microsoft is aware of a report by Sophos that claims variants of existing malware may affect users running Windows Vista,” the software giant said in a statement. “Based on our initial investigation, Microsoft can confirm that these variants do not take advantage of a security vulnerability, rather they rely on social engineering to infect a user’s system.”

Full article: ZDNet.co.uk