Aussies rage against Vista security feature

Linchpin Labs, a small Australian security company whose free utility Microsoft has blocked from loading unsigned drivers into Windows Vista, has lashed out at the American giant. Microsoft, says Linchpin, should set its own security house in order before it accuses other developers of turning their legitimate software into threats.

Earlier this month, the Sydney, Australia-based Linchpin released Atsiv, a program that uses a signed driver to load other, unsigned drivers into the 64-bit Vista kernel, behaviour that Microsoft said late last week evades a Vista security feature. In 64-bit Vista, only drivers accompanied by a valid digital certificate may load into the kernel; the provision is meant to stymie hackers from infiltrating the kernel with, among other things, malware-cloaking rootkits. Late last week, working with VeriSign, which had issued the Atsiv certificate, Microsoft got Atsiv's signing key revoked, blocking the utility from loading its driver.