Microsoft

Last night, Microsoft released a workaround to block a Windows kernel vulnerability recently found to be exploited by the installer for the Duqu virus, a Stuxnet-like worm discovered in October. The attack, discovered by Hungarian researchers, exploits a vulnerability in Windows' TrueType font engine. A full fix for the problem is still pending, and will not be part of Microsoft's "Patch Tuesday" fixes for November.

In the company's security advisory Microsoft said that attackers exploiting the TrueType vulnerability—which Duqu exploited through a Microsoft Word document—could gain access to the Windows kernel and run shell code. "The attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights," Microsoft's statement said.

As a temporary workaround, Microsoft recommends shutting off access to T2EMBED.DLL, the dynamic link library that allows applications to display TrueType fonts. While the fix will prevent attacks, it also means that fonts won't display properly in applications. But Microsoft's security team sees the threat from Duqu as limited, stating that "overall, we see low customer impact at this time." Microsoft Support has posted a "quick fix" app here.

The fix comes ahead of next week's Patch Tuesday security fixes, for which Microsoft announced some of the details yesterday. Microsoft will ship four security fixes, only one of which is rated as "critical." While Microsoft's security team did not give details on the vulnerabilities addressed, the critical fix applies only the company's more recent operating systems—Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008.

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One year ago, Google sued the US Department of the Interior because it felt slighted over the agency’s wanting to use Microsoft’s cloud instead of Google Apps. Google’s lawsuit has earned it a second chance—but judging by the federal agency’s 60-page request for cloud services, Google would be tasked with integrating Apps into a Microsoft-heavy environment.

To summarize, a lawsuit Google filed on Oct. 29, 2010 complained that the DOI’s request for quotation (RFQ) specified that it would only consider Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite for a hosted e-mail and collaboration service, despite Google’s “numerous attempts to engage DOI in substantive discussions regarding the technical and cost-saving benefits of the Google Apps solution.” The DOI emphasized its need for security, which Google believes it meets given its FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act) certification and accreditation.

Hungarian researchers have discovered a  previously unknown Windows kernel vulnerability that is used by the installer for Duqu, the Stuxnet-like Trojan first detected in October. The researchers at the Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security at Budapest University of Technology and Economics (CrySyS), who were the first to discover the Duqu virus, have reported the vulnerability to Microsoft and other organizations, and a patch is in development. 

According to a Symantec analysis of the exploit, Duqu’s installer was delivered to target systems embedded in a seemingly legitimate Microsoft Word document. When the document is opened, the installer embedded in the document is activated, and executes Windows shell code to install the malware’s .DLL and driver file to the system by hijacking Windows’ services control manager.

The shell code discovered in the Duqu worm by CrySyS was written to only allow installation of the virus during an eight-day period in August. Once the virus is installed, it can spread to other computers over networked file shares, and connect back to a command-and-control network over the Internet. Researchers found that when the virus infects systems not directly connected to the Internet, it uses a file-sharing protocol to connect with computers that have Internet access to form a relay back to the command and control network.

So far, confirmed Duqu infections have been reported in France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK, Ukraine, Austria, Hungary, Iran, Sudan, Vietnam and Indonesia. The virus communicated with servers in Belgium, which have been shut down. But it’s unknown if the virus has since been modified and used for other attacks.

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A couple of interest things happened in the world of Web browser usage during October. The more significant one is that Internet Explorer's share of global browser usage dropped below 50 percent for the first time in more than a decade. Less significant, but also noteable, is that Chrome for the first time overtook Firefox here at Ars, making it the technologist's brower of choice.

Internet Explorer still retains a majority of the desktop browser market share, at 52.63 percent, a substantial 1.76 point drop from September. However, desktop browsing makes up only about 94 percent of Web traffic; the rest comes from phones and tablets, both markets in which Internet Explorer is all but unrepresented. As a share of the whole browser market, Internet Explorer has only 49.58 percent of users. Microsoft's browser first achieved a majority share in—depending on which numbers you look at—1998 or 1999. It reached its peak of about 95 percent share in 2004, and has been declining ever since.

The Kinect for Windows SDK, a beta version of which is already available to developers, is being prepared for a commercial rollout in early 2012.

The current beta version is targeted at academics, enthusiasts, and researchers who use the motion-sensing capabilities of the Kinect for Xbox 360 technology to create new applications. Kinect apps have already popped up in health care, education, and other industries, Microsoft noted in an announcement today. Despite being designed for video games, the Kinect—which has 600 patents behind it—has moved beyond the gaming world both because of its usefulness and its price: the Kinect lets people buy a device with 3D motion capture, facial and voice recognition, microphones, depth sensors, and an RGB camera for $149.

While the software development kit released earlier this year targets non-commercial projects, Microsoft today said "the Kinect for Windows commercial program will launch early next year, giving global businesses the tools they need to develop applications on Kinect that could take their businesses and industries in new directions." Microsoft's announcement did not detail the terms under which the Kinect SDK will be released commercially.

Microsoft officials also discussed the forthcoming commercial SDK with the Financial Times, which details the Microsoft pilot program involving “more than 200 companies for use of the Kinect across 25 industries, from healthcare to education, advertising and the automotive industry.”

For example, Toyota developed a virtual showroom allowing cars to be explored with gestures, and a Spanish technology group called Tedesys is using a Kinect device linked to a PC and monitor, allowing surgeons “to wave their way through patient records on screen during operations,” the Financial Times notes. Microsoft Xbox official Alex Kipman told the paper "12 months from now, educational, academic and commercial applications will look nothing like what they are today."

The Kinect for Windows SDK beta includes drivers, APIs for raw sensor streams and human motion tracking, along with more than 100 pages of technical documentation. It is targeted at developers who use C++, C#, or Visual Basic. Kinect applications are designed to be used in conjunction with Windows 7, and presumably the forthcoming Windows 8 will receive the same treatment.

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Microsoft and Mozilla have announced a special release of Firefox that integrates with the Bing search engine. The build, which is called Firefox with Bing, is available for users to download from a Microsoft-hosted website.

When Firefox 4 was released last year, it added Bing as one of the available options in the browser's built-in search box. Google remained the default, but Bing became easily accessible to users who prefer Microsoft's search engine. Microsoft and Mozilla also took the opportunity to establish a revenue-sharing agreement around the search integration.

The new "Firefox with Bing" browser sets Bing as the default search engine and comes with Bing configured as the start page. These changes are tied to the special version of the browser and won't impact the current defaults in regular Firefox releases. Users can also optionally install the Bing Search for Firefox add-on to get the same features in a regular Firefox build.

Mozilla has previously released a number of similarly customized Firefox builds in collaboration with various partners. For example, they released a special version of Firefox with Twitter integration earlier this year. Mozilla has been expanding its relationships with commercial partners over the past year, leading to some unexpected tie-ins. The release of Firefox with Bing is merely the latest development.

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For all its wide usage and market share, I never liked Windows XP, and never ran it on any system I've owned. I stuck with Windows 2000 until the release of Windows Server 2003, bought a license for that—I was a software developer at the time, and I needed access to IIS 6—and used it as my desktop system until the release of Windows Vista, switching as soon as I could buy it. I couldn't stand Luna—it was so bulbous and blobby, so faux-organic, so garish—but I loved the Watercolor theme that Microsoft used during Windows XP's beta, and so duly patched Windows Server 2003 to let me use a Watercolor theme.

Windows XP's retail release was October 25, 2001, ten years ago today. Though no longer readily available to buy, it continues to cast a long shadow over the PC industry: even now, a slim majority of desktop users are still using the operating system.

Windows XP didn't boast exciting new features or radical changes, but it was nonetheless a pivotal moment in Microsoft's history. It was Microsoft's first mass-market operating system in the Windows NT family. It was also Microsoft's first consumer operating system that offered true protected memory, preemptive multitasking, multiprocessor support, and multiuser security.

The transition to pure 32-bit, modern operating systems was a slow and painful one. Though Windows NT 3.1 hit the market in 1993, its hardware demands and software incompatibility made it a niche operating system. Windows 3.1 and 3.11 both introduced small amounts of 32-bit code, and the Windows 95 family was a complex hybrid of 16-bit and 32-bit code. It wasn't until Windows XP that Windows NT was both compatible enough—most applications having been updated to use Microsoft's Win32 API—and sufficiently light on resources.