Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[j3pflynn]

ATI patches "purple pill"

24 hours from start to fix

By Charlie Demerjian: Sunday 12 August 2007, 10:40
THERE IS A VISTA exploit called Purple Pill that targets Vista through graphics drivers. It made a lot of news last week among the security and hacker communities, but how the affected companies responded is quite illuminating.

The way it works is if a vulnerability exists in a driver, since the driver has kernel level access, a moronic design decision on MS's part that we will all pay for over the next few years, attack code can load into the kernel and run rampant. Without getting too much into the joke that is Vista security window dressing, lets just say from that point on, there is pretty much nothing you can do.

The current exploit was said to be a flaw in a graphics driver, and was later revealed to be an ATI driver flaw, specifically an exploit in the installer. The interesting point is not that a graphics driver, or any kernel level driver flaw can expose a system, it is how quickly ATI reacted to it...
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=41638