Windows 10: Microsoft refutes claims of Windows 10 Defender security problem

Windows Defender, also known as Microsoft Defender, has been around for some time in its current form, and it’s getting better with every Windows 10 feature upgrade. A new report, however, claims that Windows Defender has been updated with a new command line tool that supports a “-DownloadFile” function.

Advanced customers can use dedicated command line tool mpcmdrun.exe (Microsoft Antimalware Service Command Line Utility) to automate Microsoft Defender Antivirus functions. This feature is found under ProgramFiles > Windows Defender and it can be executed from a command prompt only.

After a recent update to Windows Defender, security researchers spotted that the tool can be used to download any file from the internet. Some researchers went a step further and used Windows Defender to download malware and ransomware.

It’s believed that Microsoft made this change to Windows Defender with either version 4.18.2009.9 or 4.18.2007.9.

This can be done by anyone with administrative privileges and Windows Defender command line tool on Windows 10.

Reports from independent researchers and news outlets suggested that attackers could abuse Windows Defender’s new feature to download malware from the internet and take control of your computer.

However, it was later discovered that Windows Defender will still detect malicious files downloads and the tool can’t be used to escalate privileges, which means this new feature is not a security threat.

In other words, you can download any file (including malware) but Windows Defender will scan the files and block malicious files, such as malware or ransomware. Windows Defender cannot be used to seize system control or infect computers with security threats.

In a statement, Microsoft has refuted these reports:

Despite these reports, Microsoft Defender antivirus and Microsoft Defender ATP will still protect customers from malware. These programs detect malicious files downloaded to the system through the antivirus file download feature – Microsoft spokesperson.

The protection applies to Windows 10 Home, Pro, Enterprise, and other editions of the operating system that comes with Windows Defender Antivirus software.

The post Microsoft refutes claims of Windows 10 Defender security problem appeared first on Windows Latest

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"Attestation" A new feature coming to Windows Defender in Windows 10

Tech Republic - Upcoming Windows Defender feature will tell you when security fails

This seems very promising. Microsoft is in the unique position to know what Windows should look like, even before Windows Update pushes out new changes. As long as MS can properly sync WD with WU changes AND this new features does not make any "noticeable" hit on system performance/resources, all without any false positives, this should be a big step forward for consumer security, and a blow to the bad guys - always a good thing.

Of course, there will likely be some hiccups the Windows/Microsoft/Windows Defender bashers will surely pounce on - regardless how extensive the Beta process is. But hopefully open and unbiased minds will prevail. After all, the goal is to stop the bad guys and if this gets us closer to that, that's a very good thing.

For more detailed information, see Introducing Windows Defender System Guard runtime attestation)

 

Microsoft claims I signed up for Windows 10...

Click to expand... This is my list of hidden updates:

 

Microsoft Botches Up UEFI Support for Windows 7 on ASUS Motherboards



Microsoft suggests updating to Windows 10 to patch Windows 7

• 
  
  
• Chris Merriman
• 
  @ChrisTheDJ
• 05 May 2016

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9 Comments

MICROSOFT HAS confirmed a potentially lappy-borking problem that it won't be fixing, because Windows 7.

Woody Leonhard, the respected Windows columnist, points to a problem involving Asus motherboards, which also appear rebadged in a variety of other manufacturers' machines, and the activation of UEFI Secure Boot for Windows 7 in a patch KB3133977.

Short version: install update, welcome to Borksville, population you.

Both Asus and Microsoft acknowledged the problem. Microsoft entitled the article "BitLocker can't encrypt drives because of service crashes in svchost.exe process in Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2", but we prefer to just call it "Trevor for brevity."

The firm's advice was that it's an optional update, leave well alone, you'll be fine, or alternatively turn secure boot off.

Then Microsoft did a silly, silly thing.

It moved the update from 'optional' to 'recommended' and anyone who reads this site regularly will know what happens when Microsoft does this. That's right boys and girls - it makes it automatically install, unless you've specifically told your machine not to.

So now, if you have one of the affected motherboard and you keep your security updates automatic like wot Microsoft recommends, then your machine will stop working properly.

We should add it's not permanently bricked, but it will take some mucking about in the BIOS to fix and that's a pain even for an experienced computer user.

Microsoft has, by offering a workaround, suggested heavily that it won't be fixing the problem, though we have asked the question, so expect a response in about a fortnight.

But the real kicker is this piece of advice: "Note The Secure Boot feature is supported in Windows 10. To learn more about the security advantages of this feature and about the upgrade path from Windows 7 to Windows 10, go to the following Windows website"

Holy toledo, this company really knows how to rub people up the wrong way.

After all - if the advice is to manually avoid the update or move to a version of the operating system where there's virtually no control over updates, then Microsoft is dealing in massive contradictions.

A more cynical site would suggest that it's yet another example of Microsoft running Windows 7 into the ground and adding built in obsolescence to encourage quicker updates. But we're not that sort of site.

Its the patching to force secure boot that is the problem win 7 does not support secure boot
hence it borks systems and well microsofts answer is Cactus >your Asshole > insert

from the inquirer