Why Windows Gets Malware So Easily - Chris Titus Tech
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Date: 2022-03-20
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Comments and reviews: 10
Loki
Administrator elevation:
Aaaaaaactually UAC is the Microsoft version of Sudo, and if you disable UAC, it just instructs the system to elevate without a click. This is not available to non-Administrator users. If a user isn't an Administrator (member of the Administrator group), an Administrator must login to elevate. Windows NT is a multi-user system built on a single-user model.
This is actually a flaw with Windows being a common desktop OS - A lay user with too much power. This causes hardware manufacturers and operating software publishers to come up with dumb, restrictive ideas that are horribly executed. The structure of the desktop operating system is with the assumption that the person who sets it up out of the box knows what they're doing.
Third-party drivers:
Actually, third-party drivers are often necessary on Mac or Linux just as much as Windows. Windows merely does not have a software repository like a Linux distro or the macOS. Many Linux distros like Ubuntu will leave any drivers with proprietary licenses out or in a separate repo, but not all, and just like Windows, if it's not baked in, you have to install it or it won't work. There are alternative drivers for some things, but those work like horse shit. If the Free driver isn't good enough to be included in the kernel, you're going to have to install a proprietary driver or you're going to have to find the Free driver in the repo and deal with the bugs and/or limitations.
This Windows flaw is actually that there is no repo for drivers. Windows Update is all you have for a repo outside of the insecure app store and -- lo and behold -- it doesn't help. Just because everything looks like it comes from one place in Linux distros and Mac doesn't make it so. Apple (for whom I have done tech support and seen behind the curtain) just packages drivers they get for the hardware they use. Third party, out of the box. The driver may even say it's from Apple. Apple only packaged it. Same with most Linux distros: If their repos have drivers (outside of little hacks like Nouveau), these are binary packages -- not source packages -- built by third parties. With Linux and Mac, at the very least, you're usually looking at drivers that have been tested. Not the case with Windows, as Microsoft doesn't care about user security. Prebuilds come with bloatware, the OS will install third party drivers out of the box.
Side note: When you say -inside- and -outside- the kernel, you make it sound like you're talking about kernel level and user level, which I know you're not talking about. Anything you can get away with running at user level, you really should. Kernel level is for building code into the system for performance, stability, etc, and anything you run at kernel level and aren't paying attention to... Could take over your computer.
No permissions assigned to programs:
Finally, one you're actually getting right. Windows NT is built on a single-user model (Windows, which was previously built on DOS), so programs are given everything and their only current limitation is what the user has access to. However, schmancy App-s do run with limitations even on Windows, while proper programs don't. This actually happens in Linux and Mac as well, but with something like Ubuntu or Mac you'd never notice since you're running App-s most of the time if you're a typical end-user. Mac actually bases its OS on these apps entirely while Ubuntu is still trying to phase users out of using real code. (But seeing as Ubuntu's snap store can't even keep a web browser from attaching to Init and gaining all of the user's permissions again... You get the picture)
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Administrator elevation:
Aaaaaaactually UAC is the Microsoft version of Sudo, and if you disable UAC, it just instructs the system to elevate without a click. This is not available to non-Administrator users. If a user isn't an Administrator (member of the Administrator group), an Administrator must login to elevate. Windows NT is a multi-user system built on a single-user model.
This is actually a flaw with Windows being a common desktop OS - A lay user with too much power. This causes hardware manufacturers and operating software publishers to come up with dumb, restrictive ideas that are horribly executed. The structure of the desktop operating system is with the assumption that the person who sets it up out of the box knows what they're doing.
Third-party drivers:
Actually, third-party drivers are often necessary on Mac or Linux just as much as Windows. Windows merely does not have a software repository like a Linux distro or the macOS. Many Linux distros like Ubuntu will leave any drivers with proprietary licenses out or in a separate repo, but not all, and just like Windows, if it's not baked in, you have to install it or it won't work. There are alternative drivers for some things, but those work like horse shit. If the Free driver isn't good enough to be included in the kernel, you're going to have to install a proprietary driver or you're going to have to find the Free driver in the repo and deal with the bugs and/or limitations.
This Windows flaw is actually that there is no repo for drivers. Windows Update is all you have for a repo outside of the insecure app store and -- lo and behold -- it doesn't help. Just because everything looks like it comes from one place in Linux distros and Mac doesn't make it so. Apple (for whom I have done tech support and seen behind the curtain) just packages drivers they get for the hardware they use. Third party, out of the box. The driver may even say it's from Apple. Apple only packaged it. Same with most Linux distros: If their repos have drivers (outside of little hacks like Nouveau), these are binary packages -- not source packages -- built by third parties. With Linux and Mac, at the very least, you're usually looking at drivers that have been tested. Not the case with Windows, as Microsoft doesn't care about user security. Prebuilds come with bloatware, the OS will install third party drivers out of the box.
Side note: When you say -inside- and -outside- the kernel, you make it sound like you're talking about kernel level and user level, which I know you're not talking about. Anything you can get away with running at user level, you really should. Kernel level is for building code into the system for performance, stability, etc, and anything you run at kernel level and aren't paying attention to... Could take over your computer.
No permissions assigned to programs:
Finally, one you're actually getting right. Windows NT is built on a single-user model (Windows, which was previously built on DOS), so programs are given everything and their only current limitation is what the user has access to. However, schmancy App-s do run with limitations even on Windows, while proper programs don't. This actually happens in Linux and Mac as well, but with something like Ubuntu or Mac you'd never notice since you're running App-s most of the time if you're a typical end-user. Mac actually bases its OS on these apps entirely while Ubuntu is still trying to phase users out of using real code. (But seeing as Ubuntu's snap store can't even keep a web browser from attaching to Init and gaining all of the user's permissions again... You get the picture)
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TheScortUK
UAC was added as an extra layer of protection for the operating system, it may have even been an effort to ensure that older programs worked correctly with the nice new Vista (shudder!)- as applications installed, would use the user's %appdata% location, and a 'virtual store' folder, along with a virtual registry, rather than the age old %systemdrive%\Program Files\.
I cannot verify that UAC was introduced to plug a -fundamental flaw- as you put it, but you are being dishonest in this video - UAC does not prompt you numerous times for a program to run, in fact, you typically only get the one prompt - when installing it! Any additional prompts you see, will likely come from either program updates, or dependency installs - but those ought to be considered applications in their own right. Provided an installed application doesn't change, then UAC remains quiet.
From supporting Windows since NT/95, programs were typically designed to run from -Program Files-, some even specifically assumed you had picked drive letter -C- as your %systemdrive%. Though I hardly saw Vista, as business didn't take to it, Windows 7 really showed off the changes made to where/how programs installed - and though you could still install a program without elevating over the UAC (assuming you had local admin rights) - you typically found that the application ended up residing in the user's own 'virtual store'. Windows 10 adds even more to this, by introducing the ProgramData location into the mix!!
I think you might be confusing yourself with having Admin rights, and getting a UAC prompt.... your reference to sudo, sort of confirms that for me. And just touching on Unix (I have only used it in server environments via SSL sessions, so bear with me), the whole Unix/Linux/MacOS are can also have similar exploits that you mention in your second point. So I don't believe that this is a fundamental flaw of Windows...
Can't really face watching anything past the 2:50 marker I reached, as I feel that you are misleading people - you clearly have a bias for Unix/Linux/MacOS/whatever distro, and that is fine. But the truth, in reference to your video title:
Why Windows Gets Malware So Easily - users.
Users always have, and always will be the cause why -Windows Gets Malware So Easily- - as they will click, download, or open anything and everything. Regardless of the platform they use, whether they are an admin or not (most home PCs will be out of the box!), they WILL ALWAYS be the weakest link.
But I guess a 10 second video with this statement, won't get you many views.
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UAC was added as an extra layer of protection for the operating system, it may have even been an effort to ensure that older programs worked correctly with the nice new Vista (shudder!)- as applications installed, would use the user's %appdata% location, and a 'virtual store' folder, along with a virtual registry, rather than the age old %systemdrive%\Program Files\.
I cannot verify that UAC was introduced to plug a -fundamental flaw- as you put it, but you are being dishonest in this video - UAC does not prompt you numerous times for a program to run, in fact, you typically only get the one prompt - when installing it! Any additional prompts you see, will likely come from either program updates, or dependency installs - but those ought to be considered applications in their own right. Provided an installed application doesn't change, then UAC remains quiet.
From supporting Windows since NT/95, programs were typically designed to run from -Program Files-, some even specifically assumed you had picked drive letter -C- as your %systemdrive%. Though I hardly saw Vista, as business didn't take to it, Windows 7 really showed off the changes made to where/how programs installed - and though you could still install a program without elevating over the UAC (assuming you had local admin rights) - you typically found that the application ended up residing in the user's own 'virtual store'. Windows 10 adds even more to this, by introducing the ProgramData location into the mix!!
I think you might be confusing yourself with having Admin rights, and getting a UAC prompt.... your reference to sudo, sort of confirms that for me. And just touching on Unix (I have only used it in server environments via SSL sessions, so bear with me), the whole Unix/Linux/MacOS are can also have similar exploits that you mention in your second point. So I don't believe that this is a fundamental flaw of Windows...
Can't really face watching anything past the 2:50 marker I reached, as I feel that you are misleading people - you clearly have a bias for Unix/Linux/MacOS/whatever distro, and that is fine. But the truth, in reference to your video title:
Why Windows Gets Malware So Easily - users.
Users always have, and always will be the cause why -Windows Gets Malware So Easily- - as they will click, download, or open anything and everything. Regardless of the platform they use, whether they are an admin or not (most home PCs will be out of the box!), they WILL ALWAYS be the weakest link.
But I guess a 10 second video with this statement, won't get you many views.
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Eugene
A very clear and simple explanation, yet thorough. I experimented with Linux back in the late 90's and it seemed so much better and so much more -logical.- It motivated you to become shell script expert because of how much more effective and in control you'd be once you get a hang of some useful functions and understanding of a computer language. The problem with Linux from the very beginning is that simply there was not enough COMMERCIAL development. Microsoft was an aggressive corporation out to MAKE MONEY and ... MAKE EVEN MORE MONEY. Windows was ultimately shaped by corporate BUSINESS OBJECTIVES and corporate BUSINESS STRATEGY. A part of the +long term+ business strategy was to make Windows the ONE computer system on which everyone depended, including and especially the developers - other commercial enterprises: computer software developers.
And we have to admit - they NAILED IT! Purely from a point of a money-making BUSINESS ENTERPRISE, Microsoft was a great success - an American icon so to speak, no pun intended. Microsoft attracted professionals from around the world. It was one of the main places where software developers wanted to work - especially at the time when the whole computer age was just beginning. I also took to learning computer programming back then, but then switched to accounting and exploration of my personal -passion subject- - CONSCIOUSNESS DEVELOPMENT. That's where the next revolution will occur - the revolution in the sphere of human consciousness. But that's another subject.
What is the BUSINESS STRATEGY for Microsoft now? I would say that it is no longer a business enterprise but a kind of -business-like- agency that now uses Microsoft's position in the sphere of technology to do what it needs to do, whatever that may be. I think even if only on the level of intuition a lot of people have been sensing there is something fundamentally wrong with the -new direction- or a new -philosophy- emanated by (what used to be) the business company of Microsoft. It's even perceptible on the level of INTENTION. They have made it HARDER FOR YOU to control the system and easier for themselves - whoever that may be now. There is definitely a perceptible presence of a -new hand- in this that is just IMPOSING CONTROL over the system and its users. It's an INTRUSION into your personal sphere of activity, and this advancing intrusion is quite palpable.
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A very clear and simple explanation, yet thorough. I experimented with Linux back in the late 90's and it seemed so much better and so much more -logical.- It motivated you to become shell script expert because of how much more effective and in control you'd be once you get a hang of some useful functions and understanding of a computer language. The problem with Linux from the very beginning is that simply there was not enough COMMERCIAL development. Microsoft was an aggressive corporation out to MAKE MONEY and ... MAKE EVEN MORE MONEY. Windows was ultimately shaped by corporate BUSINESS OBJECTIVES and corporate BUSINESS STRATEGY. A part of the +long term+ business strategy was to make Windows the ONE computer system on which everyone depended, including and especially the developers - other commercial enterprises: computer software developers.
And we have to admit - they NAILED IT! Purely from a point of a money-making BUSINESS ENTERPRISE, Microsoft was a great success - an American icon so to speak, no pun intended. Microsoft attracted professionals from around the world. It was one of the main places where software developers wanted to work - especially at the time when the whole computer age was just beginning. I also took to learning computer programming back then, but then switched to accounting and exploration of my personal -passion subject- - CONSCIOUSNESS DEVELOPMENT. That's where the next revolution will occur - the revolution in the sphere of human consciousness. But that's another subject.
What is the BUSINESS STRATEGY for Microsoft now? I would say that it is no longer a business enterprise but a kind of -business-like- agency that now uses Microsoft's position in the sphere of technology to do what it needs to do, whatever that may be. I think even if only on the level of intuition a lot of people have been sensing there is something fundamentally wrong with the -new direction- or a new -philosophy- emanated by (what used to be) the business company of Microsoft. It's even perceptible on the level of INTENTION. They have made it HARDER FOR YOU to control the system and easier for themselves - whoever that may be now. There is definitely a perceptible presence of a -new hand- in this that is just IMPOSING CONTROL over the system and its users. It's an INTRUSION into your personal sphere of activity, and this advancing intrusion is quite palpable.
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John
Thanks for this informative video. Please add a crucial fourth weakness and publish it again - I think it will be a good addition. The vulnerability I am referring to is probably targeted more than any of the ones you mentioned. The reason I am saying this is because social engineering is probably the easiest and most used way to break into a network. In Windows, an application is defined by the extension of a file, so an exe, scr, cmd or bat file is considered to be an executable. With anchors in web sites and html emails, the sender have the ability to add a link to a virus and make it look like a picture or video. In Linux or Mac you have to set the execution bit on a file and when you download anything from a web site or email this bit is not set. The user needs to manually do it, which most users will not be able to do. The ones that is knows enough on how to do this is also the ones that understands the risks in doing so, which makes it much harder for someone to get into a Linux or Mac via social engineering. I spoke to a user once that realized she should not have opened an email attachment immediately after she did, but it was too late and the machine had to be rebuilt.
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Thanks for this informative video. Please add a crucial fourth weakness and publish it again - I think it will be a good addition. The vulnerability I am referring to is probably targeted more than any of the ones you mentioned. The reason I am saying this is because social engineering is probably the easiest and most used way to break into a network. In Windows, an application is defined by the extension of a file, so an exe, scr, cmd or bat file is considered to be an executable. With anchors in web sites and html emails, the sender have the ability to add a link to a virus and make it look like a picture or video. In Linux or Mac you have to set the execution bit on a file and when you download anything from a web site or email this bit is not set. The user needs to manually do it, which most users will not be able to do. The ones that is knows enough on how to do this is also the ones that understands the risks in doing so, which makes it much harder for someone to get into a Linux or Mac via social engineering. I spoke to a user once that realized she should not have opened an email attachment immediately after she did, but it was too late and the machine had to be rebuilt.
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Pradeep
The main issue with Windows is its backword compatibilities. Our company uses software written in PowerBuilder and FoxPro. They are already 20years old and our company still using then on Windows 7 PCs. That powerbuiler software still running with Windows 10. I don't think there is any other OS supports such legacy software. All our ships are using such legacy software because none of the manufacturer provides updates to their software. Software is a small component in industry when compare with other things they do. Companies does not shell out huge sums for software maintenance unless they are legally bound to. They still use scanners and printers on the ship which saw their first light in stone age. Companies expects them as well as newer hardware to work with OS that they are using. When your OS needs to support such software then you really have a little window to make changes. All those old software uses older APIs to access system resources. Your OS have to live with it.
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The main issue with Windows is its backword compatibilities. Our company uses software written in PowerBuilder and FoxPro. They are already 20years old and our company still using then on Windows 7 PCs. That powerbuiler software still running with Windows 10. I don't think there is any other OS supports such legacy software. All our ships are using such legacy software because none of the manufacturer provides updates to their software. Software is a small component in industry when compare with other things they do. Companies does not shell out huge sums for software maintenance unless they are legally bound to. They still use scanners and printers on the ship which saw their first light in stone age. Companies expects them as well as newer hardware to work with OS that they are using. When your OS needs to support such software then you really have a little window to make changes. All those old software uses older APIs to access system resources. Your OS have to live with it.
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GazzaDazzle
Safe or not, Windows works for me. I never got hacked or felt unsafe. I had installed Ubuntu 19.4 recently. Plug in my USB wifi on a desktop, doesn't read it, tried installing the driver from the CD provided, couldn't install it. I then installed Windows 10, plug in the same USB, worked instantly without any installation of drivers manually. Linux is too cumbersome to install and do things. Why can't u just double click on an icon to install things or to look up things. Why do u need to input a code to install something so basic such as a screensaver? I like the clean look of Ubuntu, that's the main reason I want to switch to Ubuntu but decided not for me after a few weeks.
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Safe or not, Windows works for me. I never got hacked or felt unsafe. I had installed Ubuntu 19.4 recently. Plug in my USB wifi on a desktop, doesn't read it, tried installing the driver from the CD provided, couldn't install it. I then installed Windows 10, plug in the same USB, worked instantly without any installation of drivers manually. Linux is too cumbersome to install and do things. Why can't u just double click on an icon to install things or to look up things. Why do u need to input a code to install something so basic such as a screensaver? I like the clean look of Ubuntu, that's the main reason I want to switch to Ubuntu but decided not for me after a few weeks.
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Иван
Adressing your last question. Linux is open-source and suppose to make open-source every system its code used in, so some ppl see a danger in using open-source system for govermental systems. Other issue is that some ppl who are afraid of new things and afraid to look incompetent at their job lobby windows for govermental systems and at their companies, because they are familiar with it. Recently Russia decided switch to linux, but I don't know if they open source of the systems they are using (because they change it). If not, it's a violation of license. But maybe they do
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Adressing your last question. Linux is open-source and suppose to make open-source every system its code used in, so some ppl see a danger in using open-source system for govermental systems. Other issue is that some ppl who are afraid of new things and afraid to look incompetent at their job lobby windows for govermental systems and at their companies, because they are familiar with it. Recently Russia decided switch to linux, but I don't know if they open source of the systems they are using (because they change it). If not, it's a violation of license. But maybe they do
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meneerjansen00
As a Linux user I respect the backwards compatibility of Windows greatly. Modern Windows applications will still run on WinXP (don't use WinXP though!) and applications from the stone ages still run on Win 10. I hate the look and feel of Win 10 and I don't understand it's error messages so I can't do anything with it, but that support is great. It comes w/ forced -updates- every 6 months and sensitivity for viruses but that's the price you pay for that great support of almost every piece of software ever written for the system.
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As a Linux user I respect the backwards compatibility of Windows greatly. Modern Windows applications will still run on WinXP (don't use WinXP though!) and applications from the stone ages still run on Win 10. I hate the look and feel of Win 10 and I don't understand it's error messages so I can't do anything with it, but that support is great. It comes w/ forced -updates- every 6 months and sensitivity for viruses but that's the price you pay for that great support of almost every piece of software ever written for the system.
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Grampaw
I think you missed one important concern: from my notes Windows implements virtual memory but does not implement memory protection as does Linux where memory pages are marked READ-EXECUTE for -text- pages (which contain executable code) and READ-WRITE pages -- which contain data. If I remember right Linux even had an initiative proposed to make running in memory protected mode a requirement -- but I've not read anything on this for a while now
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I think you missed one important concern: from my notes Windows implements virtual memory but does not implement memory protection as does Linux where memory pages are marked READ-EXECUTE for -text- pages (which contain executable code) and READ-WRITE pages -- which contain data. If I remember right Linux even had an initiative proposed to make running in memory protected mode a requirement -- but I've not read anything on this for a while now
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Zenny
You must be super dumb to get infected with malware nowdays. Disabled all UAC for months on my W10 Pro machine and never had any problem. And whats the problem with user having full control of the OS? The same individual might disable all the protections on Linux or MacOS just to gain more power over the OS.
Windows has more virus because - gasp - its the more popular OS.
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You must be super dumb to get infected with malware nowdays. Disabled all UAC for months on my W10 Pro machine and never had any problem. And whats the problem with user having full control of the OS? The same individual might disable all the protections on Linux or MacOS just to gain more power over the OS.
Windows has more virus because - gasp - its the more popular OS.
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