Security vendor circumvents Windows Vista's Patchguard
Security researchers with Authentium have found a way to circumvent the Patchguard security technology that Microsoft has built into the 64-bit version of its forthcoming Windows Vista operating system.
Over the past months the Patchguard technology has been subject of a fierce debate between security vendors and Microsoft because it prevents some anti-virus software from functioning.
Facing potential penalties from antitrust authorities in Korea and the EU, Microsoft earlier this month promised to provide application programming interfaces (APIs) that would allow third party security products to function properly in Windows Vista. It may take years however before these APIs will be published and fully functioning. Authentium's technology allows an application to effectively disable Patchguard. The company decided to develop the tool because it required kernel access for its VirtualATM product that is scheduled for release in December.
