Microsoft's next generation operating system, Windows Vista (formerly known as Longhorn), has already been targeted by virus writers, even though it is over a year away from release.
The beta version of Windows Vista was released to MSDN subscribers about a week ago. It is scheduled to contain a new command line interface, or shell, known as the Microsoft Command Shell (MSH), also known as Monad. This is designed to replace the CMD.exe and COMMAND.COM shells, and is supposedly far more functional.
According to anti-virus experts F-Secure, an Austrian virus writer has published five viruses which target the Monad interface. Although these are only proof of concept ideas, the thought that Windows Vista is already the subject of virus writers scrutiny is a worry indeed.
Currently there is some speculation that the Monad shell may not even make it into Windows Vista, and is instead targeted at products such as Microsoft Exchange Server. Wherever it ends up, we can only hope that it is a more secure and stable product than it would currently appear to be.
|
|
Reader Comments: 0
