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images/news/amd.jpgIt's bad enough that there aren't enough Vista drivers for all peripherals. Now, having some of those drivers is worse.
Apparently, preinstalled ATI drivers can open the Vista kernel to arbitrary memory writes.
The problem isn't limited to 32-bit Windows Vista, but also affects the 64-bit version, which kernel is supposed to sacrosanct. My eWEEK colleague Lisa Vaas' story goes into the gory, technical details, which I would rehash and more specifically comment on if I weren't out of the office this week.
Quick take: Microsoft moved the graphics subsystem into the kernel with Windows NT 4. I always thought that it was a bad idea to let graphics drivers write directly to the kernel. The change greatly improved NT 4 graphics performance compared to its predecessors, resolved ongoing graphics drivers problems and eventually opened up more gaming to NT 4 and its successors (which includes Windows Vista).
Read the whole gory details @ MicrosoftWatch
Apparently, preinstalled ATI drivers can open the Vista kernel to arbitrary memory writes.
The problem isn't limited to 32-bit Windows Vista, but also affects the 64-bit version, which kernel is supposed to sacrosanct. My eWEEK colleague Lisa Vaas' story goes into the gory, technical details, which I would rehash and more specifically comment on if I weren't out of the office this week.
Quick take: Microsoft moved the graphics subsystem into the kernel with Windows NT 4. I always thought that it was a bad idea to let graphics drivers write directly to the kernel. The change greatly improved NT 4 graphics performance compared to its predecessors, resolved ongoing graphics drivers problems and eventually opened up more gaming to NT 4 and its successors (which includes Windows Vista).
Read the whole gory details @ MicrosoftWatch
