First Vista Virus 

At last Microsoft's dream of fully virus/bug proof operating system has been shattered. It is surprising that Windows Vista virus came so early. The credit (?) goes to an Austrian hacker calling himself "Second Part To Hell" alias "Mario", the writer of the first known viruses for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista operating system.

The virus took advantage of the vulnerability in the new command shell in the OS beta code to intrude, known as Monad. It was released several days prior to the Windows Vista beta.

F-Secure's Findings 

It's a part of a virus-writing tutorial written for an underground hacker group calling itself the Ready Ranger Liberation Front, published on 21 July 2005. Command shells allow users to use powerful text-based commands similar to DOS, unlike the traditional Windows graphical user interface.

According to copy obtained by the IDG News Service, Second Part To Hell wrote in the tutorial, "Monad will be like Linux's BASH (Bourne Again Shell) -- that means a great number of commands and functions," he wrote. "We will be able to make as huge and complex scripts as we do in Linux." It seems that this sophisticated command shell will offer new opportunities for hackers.

After thoroughly analyzing the code, F-Secure has named the virus family Danom (reverse of Monad). According to F-Secure the Danom family is disruptive but will not make significant damage to Windows users. F-Secure further said, "These are proof-of-concept viruses where virus writers want to break new ground and write the first viruses for a new platform."

Since Monad's scripting capabilities will be used only by advanced users, F-Secure believes Microsoft should not offer the software as part of the standard Windows Vista package when it becomes commercially available in the second half of 2006. This would make the software less prevalent, and therefore less attractive to virus writers.

Microsoft's Reaction 

Interestingly I came to know that Microsoft denies F-secure's statement and hasn't officially said that it will include Monad in Windows Vista. Microsoft actually "removed" Monad from Longhorn.

Now it's the hot discussion among the security experts whether Microsoft should enable the Monad shell by default in Windows Vista.

In above article I have tried to review the F-Secure's findings about the Vista virus and Microsoft's response to it. Always be in touch with us to know the latest development about it.

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