For the first time, Microsoft CEO Ballmer referred to the next version of Windows as "Windows 8"

For the first time, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer referred to the next version of Windows as "Windows 8" – it was during remarks at a Microsoft Developer Forum in Japan, as opposed to an official press event for Windows, but it's still worth noting. Furthermore, Ballmer specifically said the next generation of Windows systems will be out next year.

We've been referring to Windows 7's successor as Windows 8 for a long time now, so many might think this isn't a big deal, but it is. Microsoft has made a point never to refer to the next version of Windows as Windows 8, and has instead publicly called it "Windows Next" or the "next generation of Windows." The company has also refused to give a timeframe for a release date, merely saying that it won't come sooner than three years after the release of Windows 7 (October 22, 2009).

Here is the relevant quote from Ballmer, courtesy of Microsoft's own transcript:

We're obviously hard at work on the next version of Windows. Windows 7 PCs will sell over 350 million units this year. We've done a lot in Windows 7 to improve customer satisfaction. We have a brand new user interface. We've added touch, and ink, and speech. And yet, as we look forward to the next generation of Windows systems, which will come out next year, there's a whole lot more coming. As we progress through the year, you ought to expect to hear a lot about Windows 8. Windows 8 slates, tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors.

To make things a bit more interesting, Microsoft is saying Ballmer made a mistake. "It appears there was a misstatement," a Microsoft spokesperson told ZDNet. "We are eagerly awaiting the next generation of Windows 7 hardware that will be available in the coming fiscal year. To date, we have yet to formally announce any timing or naming for the next version of Windows."

In other words, despite what Ballmer said, Microsoft is still not ready to announce the name of Windows 7's successor, or when it will arrive. It's still very probable that Ballmer's statement was accurate, but to what extent we'll have to wait a little while longer.

Windows 8 build 7850, the first leaked Windows 8 build, hit the Internet last month. It was quickly followed by Windows 8 Build 7955 a few weeks later. Windows Server 8 build 7959 then leaked earlier this month.

If you see a download claiming to be newer than build number 7959, be careful as it is likely bogus and probably contains malware. We may not see new leaks for a while given that Microsoft is rumored to have recently fired two employees for this exact reason.

Microsoft announced earlier this year that Windows 8 will support Intel, AMD, and ARM architectures. Although a rumor suggests that Windows 8 will arrive on January 7, 2013, we expect that the operating system will ship in time for the 2012 holiday season.

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Security Flaws Allowing Any Windows User to Upgrade to Windows 8 Pro For Just $14.99

Security Flaws Allowing Any Windows User to Upgrade to Windows 8 Pro For Just $14.99

The long awaited and the most advanced windows operating system by Microsoft is ready and available to buy from Microsoft Store. Earlier we got three Pre-release version of Windows 8 -Consumer Preview, Developer Preview & Release Preview. Along with these the Redmond based software giant also released an Enterprise Edition of Windows 8. With those releases, Microsoft declared that they will start selling Windows 8 from October 26. As per the schedule Microsoft opened its virtual store and began selling upgrades to Windows 8 Pro for $39.99, making good on a promise made last summer. The upgrade, which must be downloaded and installed via a utility called "Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant," can be applied to Windows XP-, Vista-, and Windows 7-powered systems. So far so good, but not that good as it looking, recently a security hole has been spotted in the wild which is allowing Windows user to buy a license for Windows 8 Pro for just $14.99 by faking the details on the WindowsUpgradeOffer page. According to a post from Technology Personalized -For the uninitiated, the MRP of Windows 8 Pro version is $169.99 and during the promotional offer period, which runs till Jan 31st 2013, Microsoft is offering a big $130 discount to encourage early adaption of the latest Windows OS. So, the existing Windows 7/Vista/XP users can upgrade to Windows 8 for just $39.99 (or INR 1999). Additionally, Microsoft had announced that those who bought a Windows 7 PC between June 2, 2012, and January 31, 2013 are eligible for a further discount and can actually upgrade for a meagre $14.99. Moreover, users get to download the ISO and/or save Windows 8 as bootable USB.

Shockingly, the WindowsUpgradeOffer page requires people to enter some extremely basic details about their Windows 7 PC purchase as shown below. As you can see, the details they ask for can no way be used to validate the purchase. It neither asks for a serial number nor Windows 7 key, but just the PC brand and model! As you can see, we entered some random info into each of the fields.

Once the details are submitted, user will get a confirmation email about the registration. Within a few minutes, another email with the promo code is sent to the same email address. This promo code can be used to purchase the Windows 8 Pro edition via the Windows 8 Upgrade assistant app, for a nominal fee of USD 14.99. Unbelievable, isn’t it? 

So far Microsoft did not responded about this issue, but for those who want to buy Windows 8 Pro (Download) click Here & those who want to get Windows 8 Pro shipped to you click Here.

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Unpatched DLL bugs let hackers exploit Windows 7 and IE9

Although Microsoft has patched multiple DLL load hijacking vulnerabilities since last summer, Windows and Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) can still be exploited, a security company warned today.

Microsoft confirmed that it's investigating the claims by Slovenia-based Acros Security.

Researchers from Acros will demonstrate the new attacks at the Hack in the Box security conference in Amsterdam later this month.

"We'll reveal how IE8 and IE9 can be used on Windows 7, Vista and XP for attacking users without any security warnings, even in 'Protected mode,' and how to remotely make many seemingly-safe applications, for example, Word 2010 and PowerPoint 2010, vulnerable," said Acros CEO Mitja Kolsek in a Friday email.

The attack class called "DLL load hijacking" by some, but dubbed "binary planting" by Acros, jumped into public view last August when HD Moore, the creator of the Metasploit penetration hacking toolkit and chief security officer at Rapid7, found dozens of vulnerable Windows applications. Moore's report was followed by others, including several from Kolsek and Acros.

Many Windows applications don't call DLLs using a full path name, but instead use only the filename, giving hackers a way to trick an application into loading a malicious file with the same title as a required DLL. If attackers can dupe users into visiting malicious Web sites or remote shared folders, or get them to plug in a USB drive -- and in some cases con them into opening a file -- they can hijack a PC and plant malware on it.

Since Moore's original report, Microsoft has issued 13 DLL load hijacking-related updates stretching from November 2009 to last month, when it patched a pair in Office and Visual Studio as part of a massive 64-fix update.

But the Redmond, Wash. developer has not closed all the holes in its software, said Kolsek today.

In a blog post, Kolsek outlined still-available DLL load hijacking attack vectors, including one that works against any copy of Windows XP, another that can be used to compromise PCs running the newer Vista or Windows 7 operating systems, and a third that can be exploited through Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), Microsoft's eight-week-old browser.

At Hack in the Box, Kolsek intends to demonstrate exploits of DLL load hijacking bugs in Windows using malicious Word 2010 and PowerPoint 2010 documents, and against IE9.

The IE9 attack works even on Windows 7, where the browser runs in a "sandbox" of sorts, an anti-exploit technology designed to block hackers from infecting a PC. "[The attack works] against Internet Explorer 9 in protected mode on Windows 7 ... without any suspicious double-clicks or security warnings," Kolsek wrote on the Acros blog.

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Researchers Found Flaws On The IPv6 Handling System Of Windows 7

Researchers have found a flaw in the way Windows 7 handles IPv6, one of the key protocols underlying the internet, saying attackers could use the vulnerability to crash PCs.
The security firm Barracuda Labs said on Tuesday that someone would have to make a targeted denial-of-service attack to exploit the vulnerability, but exploitation could cause failure in a PC's network connectivity, applications and sound system.
Microsoft has acknowledged and reported the flaw, but has said it will not patch it in a security update, because exploiting the vulnerability requires local network access.
According to Barracuda Labs researcher Thomas Unterleitner, the vulnerability lies in the way Windows 7's remote procedure call (RPC) function handles malformed DHCPv6 requests — DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) being the automatic configuration protocol that lets servers allocate IP addresses to clients at start-up.
DHCPv6 is part of IPv6, the new version of the internet protocol that is being slowly rolled out. 128-bit IPv6 addressing can handle a vastly greater number of connected network devices than 32-bit IPv4, which was introduced in 1981 and is now running out of address space.

Intercept DHCPv6 traffic:-

"To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need to intercept DHCPv6 traffic," Unterleitner wrote. "Once a DHCPv6 request has been intercepted, the corresponding reply would have to be modified to contain the malformed Domain Search List option. On reception of this malformed packet, RPC on the remote machine would fail. Exploiting this vulnerability would cause the RPC service to fail, losing any RPC-based services, as well as the potential loss of some COM functions."
Unterleitner told ZDNet UK on Wednesday that a successful attack would "crash the RPC service from the Windows operating system, and without this service Windows 'collapses' slowly — no sound, no IP and so on".
 

Barracuda Labs confirmed the DHCPv6 vulnerability on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 Ultimate with Service Pack 1, and said it was "very likely" that other versions of Windows 7, and possibly earlier versions of Windows, are also affected.
After the security researchers warned Microsoft of the flaw, the company replied in late July, saying it had replicated the vulnerability. However, Microsoft said that executing a man-in-the-middle attack or establishing a rogue DHCPv6 server to exploit the flaw would require local access, so the flaw would only be fixed in the next version of Windows.
Unterleitner said an incorrectly-configured or buggy Linux DHCP server could also trigger similar effects on the client PC, but the method described by Barracuda Labs is the easiest way for a "pinpoint denial-of-service" attack to compromise a client.
ZDNet UK has asked Microsoft for comment on the vulnerability, but had received none at the time of writing.

-News Source (ZDNet)

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Windows 8 Consumer Preview & Windows Server 8 Beta By Microsoft (Freely Downloadable)

Microsoft Released Windows 8 Consumer Preview & Windows Server 8 Beta (Freely Downloadable)

A double boom for Windows lovers. Software giant Microsoft has officially released the Consumer Preview Windows 8 & Windows Server 8 Beta.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview :-

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview offers a more robust experience for testing the world's most popular operating system and is available to the widest range of people yet following the initial release of the Windows 8 Developer Preview late last year. The Developer Preview received more than 3 million downloads.

"With Windows 8, we reimagined the different ways people interact with their PC and how to make everything feel like a natural extension of the device, whether using a Windows 8 tablet, laptop or all-in-one," said Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft. "The Windows 8 Consumer Preview brings a no-compromises approach to using your PC."

The test "beta" version of the revamped system was introduced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the planet's largest cell phone trade show, and borrows some of the look of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 software for Windows 8. Windows 8 doesn't have the traditional "Start" menu, and applications are spread across a mosaic of tiles in a design Microsoft calls "Metro" -- seen as an attempt by the company as a scramble to preserve its market share. And executives said it powers up on PCs in eight seconds, much faster than the previous version.

What is New In Windows 8 Consumer Preview :-

• Broad range of product changes and improvements. Since the Developer Preview in September, designed to preview the programming platform, Windows 8 has progressed across every dimension. From completing the user experience for touch, keyboard and mouse to refining the development platform, the Consumer Preview improves performance, quality and reliability across all subsystems.

• With the added features, it represents a more complete view of the capabilities of Windows 8. Windows Store with new apps. The Windows 8 Consumer Preview marks the beta opening of the Windows Store, which is filled with a variety of new Metro style apps from both third-party developers and Microsoft. During the Consumer Preview, these apps are available to try and experience at no cost to users. The Windows Store will offer personalised recommendations, and Windows 8 gives users the ability to take their apps and settings with them across multiple PCs, making it easy to discover and try new apps while offering developers the greatest opportunity of any platform.

• Connecting to the cloud across Windows-based PCs and Windows Phone 7. The Windows 8 Consumer Preview offers seamless integration with the content people care about across their Web services. An optional additional sign-on with a Microsoft account provides access to a host of features, including the ability to roam all settings, use cloud storage, communicate with email, calendar and contacts, and connect to a broad range of services. Your connection to the cloud works across your Windows-based PCs and your Windows 7 phones.

• Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 5. The best way to experience the Web on Windows is with Internet Explorer 10. The browser has been re-imagined to create a new experience designed specifically for Windows 8 devices. It provides an edge-to-edge user interface that is all about less browser and more Web. Fast and fluid, Internet Explorer is hardware-accelerated to enable Web performance.

• Preview of new hardware capabilities. At the event, Microsoft also showcased Windows 8 running on a wide range of new x86- and ARM-based reference hardware. This hardware will be available to select developers for trial and testing as previously announced.

Additional details can be found on the official website of Microsoft Windows. Also Microsoft makes Windows 8 Consumer Preview is made available for free Download

Windows Server 8 Beta :- 

The beta of Windows Server 8 is now available for IT professionals and software developers around the world to download. In the Windows Server official Blog Bill Laing, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Corporation Said - In September we introduced Windows Server “8” with a preview to help developers and hardware partners prepare new and existing applications, systems and devices. The response from that community, along with hundreds of customers in our early adopters program, has been incredibly positive. A common theme of feedback has been how broad and deep the new capabilities are. Now is the time for you, IT professionals in organizations of all sizes, to get your hands on this new release, discover the new capabilities and contribute to the development of what we call the cloud-optimized OS.
I’ll highlight in this post just a few examples of new capabilities that you’ll want to explore. With the new Hyper-V we are taking virtualization above and beyond to provide a multi-tenant platform for cloud computing. For example, with Hyper-V Network Virtualization you can create virtual networks so different business units, or even multiple customers, can seamlessly share network infrastructure.  You will be able to move virtual machines and servers around without losing their network assignments. In Windows Server “8” we are delivering high availability and disaster recovery through software technology on much more cost effective hardware. For example, with File Server Transparent Failover you can now more easily perform hardware or software maintenance of nodes in a File Server cluster by moving file shares between nodes with little interruption to server applications that are storing data on those file shares. We’re also delivering a tremendous amount of new capabilities for multi-machine management and automation. You will want to explore the dramatic new improvements to Server Manager, as well as the new Windows PowerShell. With 2,300 commandlets provided out of the box, Windows PowerShell allows you to automate everything you can do manually with the user interface. And, with technologies like Intellisense, we’ve made it very easy for you to master all of that power. Additionally, Windows Server “8” provides a powerful server application platform that enables you to develop and host the most demanding of application workloads. For example, with .NET Framework 4.5 you can take advantage of new asynch language and library support to build server and web applications that scale far beyond what other platforms provide. Our new IIS 8 web server provides better security isolation and resource sand-boxing between applications, native support for web sockets, and the ability to host significantly more sites on a server.

For Additional Information & To Download Windows Server 8 Beta Click Here

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Microsoft Announced Three Editions of Windows 8 Along With Key Features

Microsoft Announced Three Editions of Windows 8 Along With Key Features

Earlier we have discussed on Consumer Preview Windows 8 & Windows 8 Developer Preview. Now In the official blog post Microsoft Windows Communications Manager Brandon LeBlanc Microsoft announced three editions of its upcoming Windows 8 platform: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT, which was previously known at Windows on ARM, or WOA. According to Brandon LeBlanc’s post, Windows 8 Pro will include everything in Windows 8 along with advanced features such as encryption, virtualization, PC management and domain connectivity. Windows 8 Pro users will also be able to purchase Windows Media Center as a cheaper add-on. Microsoft recommends Windows 8 (the entry-level, limited functionality edition) for home use. As usual, this edition does not include BitLocker hard drive encryption, EFS file encryption or the ability to boot from a VHD. It is also not possible to access it using Remote Desktop (host). Computers running this edition are also unable to join domains and can't be managed using group policies. All these functions are reserved for Windows 8 Pro, as is the Hyper-V client for desktop visualization. 

Key Features:- 

Feature name	Windows 8	Windows 8 Pro	Windows RT
Upgrades from Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium	x	x
Upgrades from Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate		x
Start screen, Semantic Zoom, Live Tiles	x	x	x
Windows Store	x	x	x
Apps (Mail, Calendar, People, Messaging, Photos, SkyDrive, Reader, Music, Video)	x	x	x
Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote)			x
Internet Explorer 10	x	x	x
Device encryption			x
Connected standby	x	x	x
Microsoft account	x	x	x
Desktop	x	x	x
Installation of x86/64 and desktop software	x	x
Updated Windows Explorer	x	x	x
Windows Defender	x	x	x
SmartScreen	x	x	x
Windows Update	x	x	x
Enhanced Task Manager	x	x	x
Switch languages on the fly (Language Packs)	x	x	x
Better multiple monitor support	x	x	x
Storage Spaces	x	x
Windows Media Player	x	x
Exchange ActiveSync	x	x	x
File history	x	x	x
ISO / VHD mount	x	x	x
Mobile broadband features	x	x	x
Picture password	x	x	x
Play To	x	x	x
Remote Desktop (client)	x	x	x
Reset and refresh your PC	x	x	x
Snap	x	x	x
Touch and Thumb keyboard	x	x	x
Trusted boot	x	x	x
VPN client	x	x	x
BitLocker and BitLocker To Go		x
Boot from VHD		x
Client Hyper-V		x
Domain Join		x
Encrypting File System		x
Group Policy		x
Remote Desktop (host)		x

Announcing the Windows 8 Editions:-  

"First, Windows 8 is the official product name for the next x86/64 editions of Windows.

For PCs and tablets powered by x86 processors (both 32 and 64 bit), we will have two editions: Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro. For many consumers, Windows 8 will be the right choice. It will include all the features above plus an updated Windows Explorer, Task Manager, better multi-monitor support and the ability to switch languages on the fly (more details on this feature can be found in this blog post),which was previously only available in Enterprise/Ultimate editions of Windows. For China and a small set of select emerging markets, we will offer a local language-only edition of Windows 8.

Windows 8 Pro is designed to help tech enthusiasts and business/technical professionals obtain a broader set of Windows 8 technologies. It includes all the features in Windows 8 plus features for encryption, virtualization, PC management and domain connectivity. Windows Media Center will be available as an economical “media pack” add-on to Windows 8 Pro. If you are an enthusiast or you want to use your PC in a business environment, you will want Windows 8 Pro.

Windows RT is the newest member of the Windows family – also known as Windows on ARM or WOA, as we’ve referred to it previously. This single edition will only be available pre-installed on PCs and tablets powered by ARM processors and will help enable new thin and lightweight form factors with impressive battery life. Windows RT will include touch-optimized desktop versions of the new Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. For new apps, the focus for Windows RT is development on the new Windows runtime, or WinRT, which we unveiled in September and forms the foundation of a new generation of cloud-enabled, touch-enabled, web-connected apps of all kinds.  For more details on WOA, we suggest reading this blog post which shares more detail on how we have been building Windows 8 to run on the ARM architecture..."

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Windows 8 Will Reduce Runtime Memory Usage

Microsoft has tweaked the use of memory in Windows 8 to help people juggle more applications and files with less physical RAM. In the latest Building Windows 8 blog, Bill Karagounis, group program manager for Microsoft's Performance team, detailed some of the tricks that the company has employed in the new OS to optimize the use of memory.
One such trick is memory combining. Windows applications can reserve multiple chunks of system memory, not just what for they need now but what for they may need in the future. The more apps that do this, the more memory used up.
Memory combining searches system RAM for duplicate content and then frees up the duplicates to hold just a single copy. If an app needs that freed-up memory in the future, Windows provides what's called a "private copy." Such a process can make anywhere from 10s to 100s of megabytes available, according to Karagounis.
A healthy amount of system RAM is also taken up by Windows services. Open Task Manager, click on the Services tab, and you'll see the sheer number of services chewing up precious memory. To make Windows 8 more memory efficient, Microsoft has removed 13 different services, changed a number of others from automatic to manual, and moved still others into a "Start on Demand" mode so they're not eating up memory from the get-go.
Yet another trick was to find various core but low-level components that have been in Windows for almost 20 years and consolidate certain ones so they don't take up as heavy a memory footprint as they would individually.
Finally, Windows 8 will be smarter about which allocated memory to keep and which to free up. For example, antivirus programs need memory when they check on files opened by other applications. Since this is typically a one-time allocation, that specific chunk of memory probably wouldn't be needed again by the AV software. As such, Windows 7 might free up that RAM for something else if memory became scare. But such an action could drag down performance.
Instead, "In Windows 8, any program has the ability to allocate memory as 'low priority,' Karagounis said. "This is an important signal to Windows that if there is memory pressure, Windows can remove this low priority memory to make space, and it doesn't affect other memory required to sustain the responsiveness of the system."
Overall, the new memory optimization should coax better performance out of PCs with an ample supply of RAM but also benefit those with only 1 or 2 gigabytes of memory. As an example, Karagounis looked at the Netbook that Windows president Steven Sinofsky used in a demo at the company's recent Build conference. Comparing the PC's memory usage under Windows 7 and Windows 8 under the same conditions, Karagounis found that Windows 7 chewed up 404MB of RAM, while Windows 8 used only 281MB.

The tweaks will also squeeze more juice out of tablets and other lower-powered devices that don't hold much physical RAM, explained Karagounis. The more RAM a device contains, the more battery power it chews up. Manufacturers of Windows 8 devices can now get by with less physical memory, thereby delivering more life on a single battery charge.

For more information and to see the windows 8 Official Blog Click Here

-News Source (Windows 8 Blog, Cnet)

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Pwn2Own 2013 -Hack Major Browser, Adobe Reader, Flash or Java & Earn in Million Dollars

Pwn2Own 2013 -Hack Major Web-browser, Adobe Reader, Flash or Java & Earn in Million Dollars 

Since the last two years the Pwn2Own hacker contest has become an important fixture in the world of testing the security of software applications, operating systems and hardware devices. In last two years we have seen several hackers, security professionals have expressed their enthusiasm and joined Pwn2Own where four major and widely browser's security get compromised, in order to make applications, software more safe and secure. Last year we have reported how different hackers across the globe taken part in Pwn2Own and successfully hacked Google Chrome, IE & Firefox, and earned millions of dollars. But the contest of this year has some more twist than before as, HP TippingPoint and Google, sponsor of Pwn2Own, has made clear that it is expanding the focus of the competition beyond browsers. Also, Pwn2own 2013 will include $560,000 in prize money for demonstrations of exploits in the major web browsers, Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash or Oracle Java. 

Contest Dates:-

The contest will take place the 6th, 7th, and 8th of March in Vancouver, British Columbia during the CanSecWest 2013 conference. DVLabs blog post will be updated as the contest plays out and get real-time updates by following either @thezdi or @Pwn2Own_Contest on Twitter or search for the hash tag #pwn2own.

Rules & Prizes:-

HP ZDI is offering more than half a million dollars (USD) in cash and prizes during the competition for vulnerabilities and exploitation techniques in the below categories. The first contestant to successfully compromise a selected target will win the prizes for the category.

• Web Browser
• Google Chrome on Windows 7 ($100,000)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer, either
• IE 10 on Windows 8 ($100,000), or
• IE 9 on Windows 7 ($75,000)
• Mozilla Firefox on Windows 7 ($60,000)
• Apple Safari on OS X Mountain Lion ($65,000)
• Web Browser Plug-ins using Internet Explorer 9 on Windows 7
• Adobe Reader XI ($70,000)
• Adobe Flash ($70,000)
• Oracle Java ($20,000)

The targets will be running on the latest, fully patched version of the Windows 7, 8, and OS X Mountain Lion. All targets will be installed in their default configurations, as this is how a majority of users will have them configured. As always, the vulnerabilities utilized in the attack must be unknown and not previously reported to the vendor. If a sandbox is present, a full sandbox escape is required to win. A given vulnerability may only be used once across all categories.

Upon successful demonstration of the exploit, the contestant will provide HP ZDI a fully functioning exploit and all the details of the vulnerability used in the attack. In the case that multiple vulnerabilities were exploited to gain code execution, details about all the vulnerabilities (memory corruption, infoleaks, escalations, etc.) leveraged and the sequence in which they are used must be provided to receive the prize money. The initial vulnerability utilized in the attack must be in the registered category.

Along with prize money, the contestant will receive the compromised laptop and 20,000 ZDI reward points* which immediately qualifies them for Silver standing. 

Full contest rules can be found at http://dvlabs.tippingpoint.com/Pwn2OwnContestRules.html, and may be changed at any time without notice.

Registration:-

Contestants are asked to pre-register by contacting ZDI via e-mail at zdi@hp.com. This will allow the organizer to ensure that they have the necessary resources in place to facilitate the attack. If more than one contestant registers for a given category, the order of the contestants will be drawn at random.

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HTC Is Going To Release First Windows Phone 7 Handset (HTC Kaixuan) For China

HTC Is Going To Release  First Windows Phone 7 Handset (HTC Kaixuan) For China

Finally the Microsoft Mobile OS reached the key market of China. Taiwanese smart phone maker HTC has planed to release what could be the first Windows Phone 7 handset for mainland China. The HTC Kaixuan (triumphant return) will be launched later this month, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. HTC is already accepting pre-orders for the device on its online store in China for 4,399 yuan (US$698). Microsoft had said it expected its Windows Phone 7 mobile OS to launch in China during the first half of this year. Handset makers Nokia and ZTE also plan to release Windows Phone 7 smartphones in 2012.
HTC, however, said the Kaixuan is different in that its Windows Phone 7.5 OS has been localized for Chinese users. For instance, the Kaixuan comes installed with Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter. Windows Phone 7 is however coming to China at a time when Google's Android OS is dominant, with a 56 percent share of the market in 2011, according to research firm Canalys. Android's open source nature has been the big reason behind the success of the OS, said Canalys research director Nicole Peng. This has allowed Chinese companies and developers to build a strong ecosystem around Android, resulting in localized versions of the OS and apps specially built for average Chinese consumers, she added. To compete with Android, Microsoft will need to develop the same kind of ecosystem for its Windows Phone 7 OS, which it so far lacks in China. "For Windows Phone 7, the biggest problem is the system is not localized enough," Peng said.

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Microsoft Closing Support for Windows XP & Office 2003 in 2 Years

Microsoft Closing Support for Windows XP & Office 2003 in 2 Years

Bad news for Windows XP lovers, Microsoft declared that they will officially end support for Windows XP and Office 2003 in two years--on April 8, 2014, to be exact. Additionally, mainstream support for Windows Vista ends Tuesday. That means the few Vista users that are out there will be charged on a per-incident basis for support going forward. 

"If you still have some PCs running Windows XP and Office 2003, now would be a good time to start migrating them to Windows 7 and Office 2010," said Stella Chernyak, a marketing director in Microsoft's Windows group. "Windows XP and Office 2003 were great software releases in their time, but the technology environment has shifted. Technology continues to evolve and so do people's needs and expectations. Modern users demand technologies that fit their personal workstyle and allow them to stay productive anywhere anytime, while businesses have an ever increasing need to protect data and ensure security, compliance and manageability" - she added. 

But there's a large amount of users still using XP up to SP3, and not everyone will be happy about having to upgrade. And enterprise deployment can take anywhere between 18 to 32 months from business case through full deployment, so those who want to stick with Windows and Office should begin planning, well, now. The company recommends switching to Windows 7 and Office 2010 rather than waiting for Windows 8. Microsoft wants to facilitate that migration and is thus offering a free download of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit. It will assist with new deployments of Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008, and Microsoft Office products.

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Microsoft Released 4 Updates for Windows & Office (22 Vulnerability Fixed)

Microsoft today issued 4 updates to Windows and Office fixing a total of 22 vulnerabilities, just one of them rated critical. The first and most serious is MS11-053: Vulnerability in Bluetooth Stack Could Allow Remote Code Execution, which patches a single vulnerability (CVE-2011-1265) in the Windows 7 and Vista Bluetooth stacks. This is a remote code execution vulnerability over a wireless protocol, but it's not as serious as it first sounds.
There are considerable mitigating factors. Microsoft gives this bug an exploitability index rating of 2, meaning that they don't expect reliable exploit code to turn up. Attacks would likely, at worst, amount to a denial of service, i.e. a crash. And of course, the system has to have Bluetooth enabled in order to be vulnerable.There is also a discoverability challenge to any attack; by default, Bluetooth addresses are not discoverable. If you were in communication with a device that wished to attack there are ways to brute force the address, but these are time-consuming and would get past just one of the many barriers to attack here.

MS11-054 is Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel-Mode Drivers Could Allow Elevation of Privilege which fixes 15 elevation of privilege vulnerabilities, affecting all versions of Windows and all rated important. The attacker must have valid logon credentials and ability to log on locally. Almost all of these were reported by Tarjei Mandt of Norman, who has made a study of this part of Windows.

MS11-055 fixes a single remote code execution vulnerability in Visio 2003 SP3. This is another of the remote binary planting bugs which Microsoft has been fixing in various products for some time and will for some time to come.
Finally, 

MS11-056: Vulnerabilities in Windows Client/Server Run-time Subsystem Could Allow Elevation of Privilege fixes 5 vulnerabilities in the CSRSS of every version of Windows. As with MS11-054, the attacker must have valid logon credentials and ability to log on locally.
Microsoft also released a number of non-security updates for Windows including the usual Windows Mail Junk Filter and MSRT (Malicious Software Removal Tool). Other updates affect Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and Windows Embedded Standard 7.

-News Source (PC Blog)

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Windows Phone 7 Connector For Mac By Microsoft Corporation

Windows Phone 7 Connector is a simple, easy-to-use application designed to sync your favorite media files from your Mac, with your Windows Phone 7 or Zune HD. You can also sync photos and videos you captured on your phone with your Mac, and when needed, update your Windows Phone 7 software. Microsoft’s latest release of the Windows Phone 7 Connector is said to fix a number of bugs, including the spotty connectivity that a number of users have reported.

Features:-

• Full sync and import support for Apple Aperture software
• Drag and drop import of files from Browse Device
• Ringtone transfer support (for phones running Windows Phone 7.5 or later)
• Improved video conversion process with user configuration options
• Support for Windows Phone Marketplace (for phones running Windows Phone 7.5 or later)
• Localization support for 13 additional languages
• Improvements to backup and restore operations
• Improved configuration for podcast sync and photo import
• Improved iTunes import support in certain languages
• Improved metadata support for videos

Fixes :-
• Added additional error codes and help references for device update
• Resolved connectivity issues with certain devices
• Resolved album art display issues for certain device

For More Information & to Download Windows Phone 7 Connector For Mac Click Here 

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Happy Birthday Windows XP (Microsoft is Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of XP)

Many Many happy returns of the day, wish you a very very happy birthday dear  Windows XP. Microsoft shipped the first copies of Windows XP to PC manufacturers 10 years ago today. Short for “eXPerience”, the successor to Windows 2000 and Windows Me eventually became the most popular operating system of all time. Windows XP is the first consumer-oriented OS built on the Windows NT kernel. The OS had a long run despite a rocky launch and has sustained two subsequent releases, the dreaded Windows Vista and the much-improved Windows 7.
Just one month before the official retail release of XP, a group by the name of devils0wn released a volume license key used to bypass product activation. This allowed potentially millions of users to install the operating system without paying for it. Furthermore, the events of September 11, 2001 put a damper on Microsoft’s retail launch plans and the company decided to scale back worldwide launch parties accordingly.
OEM and retail sales of XP ceased in June 2008, although Microsoft continued to offer the OS to system builders through early 2009. Support will be offered for systems running Service Pack 3 through April 8, 2014. As of last month, Windows XP finally fell below the 50 percent mark among all Windows Internet users. The slow decline is partially due to the success of Windows 7, which now accounts for nearly 30 percent of the market.
Microsoft has been urging customers to upgrade from XP since Vista arrived in 2006 and again when 7 debuted in 2009. According to free antivirus software provider Avast, XP is home to 74 percent of their customers' rookit infections.

-News Source (TECHSPOT)

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Internet Explorer & Firefox Also Became Victim To Hackers At Pwn2Own

Internet Explorer (IE 9) & Firefox 10.0.2 Also Became Victim To Hackers At Pwn2Own

At Pwn2Own contest the web-browsers are getting hacked in a series. First it was the turn of Google Chrome where Sergey Glazunov, a Russian security researcher has earned $60,000 by demonstrating how he could waltz past the security sandbox in Google's Chrome browser to run unauthorized code on fully-patched Windows 7 computers. Then the time came for Microsoft's Internet Explorer. A team from a French security firm managed to hack IE 9 on a fully patched Windows 7 SP1 machine. The group from Paris-based Vupen Security brought down IE9 running on Windows 7 by exploiting a pair of previously-unknown "zero-day" bugs that bypassed the operating system's defensive technologies to execute attack code, allowing that code to escape from IE's "Protected Mode," the browser's limited-rights anti-exploit system. They managed to bypass the browser's DEP and ASLR protection with a 0-day heap overflow vulnerability, and then used a separate memory corruption bug to break out of its Protected Mode, which is effectively a sandbox. According to VUPEN founder Chaouki Bekrar, these particular flows have existed in previous incarnations of the browser - all the way back to IE 6 - and will very likely work on the upcoming IE 10.

Then the turn of Firefox came. Mozilla’s Firefox is the latest browser to fall victim to hackers at this year’s Pwn2Own hacker contest. Two researchers working together – Willem Pinckaers and Vincenzo Iozzo — exploited a single zero-day vulnerability in the latest Firefox 10.0.2 on a fully patched Windows 7 SP1 PC to cart off a $30,000 cash prize.

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Microsoft's Windows 8 Will Be Available On October 26

Microsoft's Windows 8 Will Be Available On October 26

The final countdown of Windows 8 begins as software giant Microsoft announced that they will start selling Windows 8 from coming October 26, a little more than three months from now. This release will be first stable one of Windows 8, earlier we got three pre-release version of Windows 8 -Consumer Preview, Developer Preview & Release Preview. Windows 8 is Designed to work on both PCs and tablet computers, So far Windows 8 is Microsoft's best hope for competing with devices. According to official blog of Windows Steam - "Steven Sinofsky announced at Microsoft’s annual sales meeting that customers will be able to get Windows 8 – whether in upgrade fashion or on a new PC – starting on October 26^th. Earlier this month at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, Tami Reller told attendees Windows 8 would be available in October. But now everyone has a specific date to mark on their calendars."

The Oct. 26 date is also significant to users now running Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, as it marks the debut of the $39.99 upgrade to Windows 8. The price is a dramatic discount from other Windows upgrade. All users who upgrade will receive Windows 8 Pro, the more advanced of the two retail editions. Microsoft has also tied the launch of its Windows RT operating system, and its first-ever tablet, dubbed "Surface" to the debut of Windows 8. It does have some wiggle room, however, for the tablet, because it has said that the device would go on sale around the time of Windows 8's release. Microsoft officials have not said how much the promised System Builder SKU will be for those who want to build their own PCs. They also have not said whether a full, non-upgrade version will be available via retail and how much it will cost.

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Critical Zero-Day Vulnerability In Windows 7 (Exploitable Via Apple's Safari Browser)

Highly critical Zero-day vulnerability found in Windows 7. This security flaws can be exploited via Apple Safari browser.  This was first made public via a twitter user named w3bd3vil 

"<iframe height='18082563'></iframe> causes a BSoD [blue screen of death] on win 7 x64 via Safari. Lol!"

It is reported that vulnerability affects fully patched Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and cautioned that other versions may be affected. The remotely exploitable vulnerability, caused by an error in win32k.sys, enables a hacker to run arbitrary code -- such as malware -- on a victim's machine when he or she visits a specially crafted Web page using Safari. Specifically, the Web page would simply need to contain an iFrame -- an HTML element that is typically used to pull content from other sources onto a Web page -- with an overly large "height" attribute.

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Microsoft Released Windows 8 Preview For All (Anyone Can Download & Fell The Next Generation of OS)

Long awaited Windows 8 came closer to us. Today Microsoft released  the first windows 8 preview for all. It can be free;y downloaded from Microsoft, Any one can have Windows 8, an early look at the next-generation OS. The downloads, which range from 2.8GB to 4.8GB in size, come with no restrictions, a company spokeswoman confirmed earlier in the day.

According To Microsoft:- 

The Windows Developer Preview is a pre-beta version of Windows 8 for developers. These downloads include prerelease software that may change without notice. The software is provided as is, and you bear the risk of using it. It may not be stable, operate correctly or work the way the final version of the software will. It should not be used in a production environment. The features and functionality in the prerelease software may not appear in the final version. Some product features and functionality may require advanced or additional hardware, or installation of other software.

Windows Developer Preview with developer tools

Englis4-bit (x64):-

DOWNLOAD (4.8 GB)

• 64-bit Windows Developer Preview
• Windows SDK for Metro style apps
• Microsoft Visual Studio 11 Express for Windows Developer Preview
• Microsoft Expression Blend 5 Developer Preview
• 28 Metro style apps including the BUILD Conference app

Windows Developer Preview English

64-bit (x64):-

DOWNLOAD (3.6 GB)

Includes a disk image file (.iso) to install the Windows Developer Preview and Metro style apps on a 64-bit PC.

Windows Developer Preview English

32-bit (x86):-

DOWNLOAD (2.8 GB)

Includes a disk image file (.iso) to install the Windows Developer Preview and Metro style apps on a 32-bit PC.

System Requirements:-

Windows Developer Preview works great on the same hardware that powers Windows Vista and Windows 7:

• 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
• Taking advantage of touch input requires a screen that supports multi-touch

-News Source (Microsoft)

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