By Woody Leonhard on July 18, 2012 in Top Story
In the unlikely chance that you’re using Windows gadgets, you need to get rid of them — right now!
Those seemingly innocuous accessory apps that you stick onto your desktop, included with Vista and Windows 7, could be used to subvert your system.
Microsoft’s hot new feature that never was
If you paid any attention to the launch of Windows Vista, you might remember Microsoft hyping a fabulous new feature in the newest and greatest version of Windows yet — the Windows we’d all been waiting for to replace XP. It was a magical new technology known as the Windows Sidebar, a place where you could put really cool mini-apps — gadgets — such as stock tickers, clocks (shown in Figure 1), simple games, and weather guides. (If none of this sounds familiar, you’re easily forgiven.) .....
Whatever Microsoft’s intentions, there’s no doubt that Shkatov and Kohlenberg have discovered a security breach that should curl your PC’s toes.
At this time, it’s not clear whether the vulnerability is within the gadgets themselves or is associated with the Sidebar. (In Windows 7, you can run gadgets with or without the Sidebar.) MS Security Advisory 2719662 suggests both. I suppose we’ll find out next Thursday, but for now I think you need to kiss those clocks and stock tickers good-bye.
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