Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 21st Jan 2006 22:42 UTC, submitted by PlatformAgnostic
"With little fanfare, Microsoft just announced that the x64 version of Windows Vista will require all kernel-mode code to be digitally signed. This is very different than the current WHQL program, where the user ultimately decides how they want to handle unsigned drivers. Vista driver developers must obtain a Publisher Identity Certificate (PIC) from Microsoft. Microsoft says they won't charge for it, but they require that you have a Class 3 Commercial Software Publisher Certificate from Verisign. This costs $500 [EUR 412] per year, and as the name implies, is only available to commercial entities."
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Member since:2005-06-29
" You simply cannot have a sane or secure operating system which allows anybody to load code into kernel mode"
Someone already had a very good answer to that argument, you can see it further up, but for you're convenience I'll restate it. If MS wants to push this they should ideally also provide a cheap or free alternative to getting the $500 USD verisign certificate.
Member since:2006-01-03
"There is exactly one reason they're doing this, and it's because it's necessary for security."
Pff! That was exactly was they said about ActiveX signing and people's machines get stuffed with spyware every day. And they don't even need to exploit some hole in the system, because you can just get a certificate, and then sign all kinds of crap with it.
Better luck next time...
Member since:2006-01-02
It's not necessary for security for knowledgeable users. Nothing in usermode can affect kernel-mode without the user's permission. If the user wants to install something, then he/she can do so securely by logging on as an admin and running the install task. Drivers can't just install themselves, especially if they're unsigned. Currently these unsigned drivers can be installed after a user prompt.
This is not a security measure. If anything it's a quality measure and a DRM-enforcement technique. It's probably not going to last, I predict, because all it will do is slow the adoption of X64. After a while Microsoft will probably decide to open it up again.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 22:06 UTC
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:45 UTC
"There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 15:53 UTC
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 22:43 UTC
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 21:50 UTC
PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
"This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
"The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. Please note that all fixes in the prior security/bugfix updates (NetBSD 6.0.1 and 6.0.2) are also in 6.1."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."More News »
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Member since:
2005-12-31
MS better be careful... One of the advantages Windows has over other OS's is the availability of drivers for just about anything.
OK people, please stop and read the headline here.
Windows Vista X64 to require signed drivers
ie, ONLY the amd64 version will have this restriction, the standard 32 bit version that most people will be using will continue to work as it did before. They can do this because Windows 64 cannot load 32 bit drivers, they have to be compiled specifically for the OS.
There is exactly one reason they're doing this, and it's because it's necessary for security. You simply cannot have a sane or secure operating system which allows anybody to load code into kernel mode: there is no point having the idea of low priviledge users, root users, restricting programs, or any security at all really if usermode code can control the kernel.
Viruses and worms are already using rootkits to stop virus scanners finding them, and soon the AV tools will also be loading rootkits to search out the first ones. In other words it's a total arms race and the result will be computers that make todays worst spyware infections look like a stroll through a grassy meadow.
If I was to design a new OS today, I'd absolutely make this a requirement from the start. No code - nothing - gets into kernel mode unless it's been verified as legit. Now Microsoft can't do this all themselves, and code auditing is generally a waste of time anyway, but what using the VeriSign infrastructure allows for is linking some piece of code running in kernel mode back to a real world corporate identity. So no, it won't stop a rerun of the Sony incident, but it will cut down on the flow of countless anonymous rootkit developers loading whatever crap they like into the kernel with no way to identify (read: sue) them.
Drivers on Vista 64 are also blocked from overwriting the syscall table or kernel code, and operate under a host of other restrictions that make writing rootkits difficult.
Unfortunately MS can't enforce this restriction for Vista 32 as there are too many legitimate applications like iTunes or popular games which rely on loading kernel-mode code to operate and which would break if this was done. But x64 is a clean break ....
Edited 2006-01-22 00:31