Microsoft Australia has defended the company's User Account Control (UAC) system as being "misunderstood" and said it should be the type of technology that all operating systems aspire towards.
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Peter Watson, Microsoft Australia's chief security advisor, told Builder AU application providers are coming to terms with having programs and users run as non-administrative users on their Vista-run computers.
"There has been a lot of misunderstanding in the market around User Account Control (UAC). If you look at it from an architectural direction User Account Control is a great idea and strategically a direction that all operating systems and all technologies should be heading down," Watson said.
UAC is a security feature introduced with Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system. The aim is to provide increased security when using Windows as a standard user by informing them when possible security breaches could be undertaken.
The technology has been a source of irritation for Vista users, with Apple going as far as to make fun of UAC in a recent commercial.
Watson conceded that "the problem you can never get around is if the user is just going to sit there and blindly hit the enter key" when UAC message dialogs pop up on screen.
In the second video above Watson said "Microsoft, purely because of its breadth and knowledge in the security space is ideally placed to deliver [security and antivirus] solutions".
As Vista and the latest edition of Office were developed with Microsoft's Secure Development Lifecycle (SDL), "the number of exploits has been extremely low", he added.
Microsoft is offering their SDL process as training to developers as "an environment cannot insulate a developer from a security problem", Watson said.
Highlights of the interview are shown on the video player above.
1
Wesley Parish - 28/04/07
The big problem I see is that I, who run Linux as a home user, and who has some experience with FreeBSD, OpenSolaris and Minix, understand this concept - restricting rights to ordinary users on a "need to know" basis, and granting extraordinary rights on production of superuser authentication - quite well. And this requirement for superuser authentication only turns up when I am doing something with the system. I have no need of it when I am doing things with my own files in my own home directory. I can even get reliable up-to-date system information by giving a full path to a given system administration tool (in the sbin or /usr/sbin directories) without superuser authentication - as long as I am just asking for information, and not intending to change any settings or take any other action.
I have it on good authority - from a computer technician who knows a lot more about MS Windows than I'll ever know - that MS Windows Vista's UAC goes over the top with its queries, and with its demands - what really got his gander was the continual questioning of the superuser/Administrator - while he was working as Administrator.
Of course the Unix security model can do with quite a bit of tweaking, and there are some projects aiming to do just that - but a system that paranoid - why, the next installment will see Vista asking for your password in order to log out - a la some more paranoid manifestations of Multics.
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2
andrew - 28/04/07
NO way I am going to use a LINUX with UAC or a other OS that uses UAC
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3
carl - 28/04/07
I love the UAC.
Windows Vista's UAC is the best.
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4
joku - 28/04/07
Number 2 (Andrew): f.e. Linux (good example: Ubuntu) already uses UAC! Admit it. sudo is really old (but working and widely used) concept. When you try to do something like installing new software, Ubuntus "UAC" asks your password. It is not exactly the same system as in Microsoft invented (concept is exactly same), but Microsofts representive didn't say "Everybody should use exactly our system" but "Concept is working and everybody should implement this concept" (as it is).
Sad fact is that Microsoft is the last vendor to implement so called "UAC" - and didn't even learn anything from others. That's why Microsofts implementation gets so much critique and is so annoying to most people.
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5
pcfixer - 28/04/07
It stands to reason that no one should use an OS and be logged on as an administrator, atleast not in an OS of the 22th century
The main problem with UAC is that it irritates the h*ll out of people so many people will turn it off nad then there is nore security at al in the system
It also gives people a false sense of security but is it realy secure, only time will tell
Back in 2001 Microsoft said that XP was super secure and we all now the truth about that , dont we?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=29
http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?newsid=8031
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/vista/vista_security_a_petulant_child.html
http://www.petri.co.il/disable_uac_in_windows_vista.htm
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Microsoft-partner-Vista-less-secure-than-XP/0,130061733,339274261,00.htm
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6
richard - 29/04/07
Isn't it like sudo on Linux?
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7
wow - 29/04/07
This is absolutely amazing... For a company with as many intelligent technically oriented people as business people I'm constantly astounded at how Microsoft gets by thinking they've actually invented something "new" and in this case beneficial to other people. Let's face it, M$ does NOT innovate, it only makes bad clones of existing technology. It's unfortunate the general population is only beginning to realize they actually have to "think" about things when using a computer.
"...users are starting to question why they need administrative access to run an application..."
WOW!!! You mean, engineers at Microsoft are just now thinking about this??? NOW??? Such a shame because I'd like to think the engineers at Microsoft actual know what they're doing instead of copying other projects then having their business counterparts sue the heck out of those projects when they try to claim prior art. I'm happy waiting for Linux too fully mature into the formidable desktop competitor it will become over the next few years. In the mean time, I'll improvise and at times, use my Mac.
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8
Logic - 29/04/07
Using Vista and UAC? If you want security just turn off your computer and leave it off. Take up knitting as a hobby.
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9
weronica - 30/04/07
har inte en susning om vad ja ska skriva här
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10
FracturedSingleton - 01/05/07
From the article: "UAC is a security feature introduced with Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system."
This is rich... it is "introduced" in vista... Unix/Linux has had this for years and years.
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11
Mackenzie - 02/05/07
How the Hell did those idiots get a patent on this? It's been around for over 20 years. Sudo came out in 1985, and there were others before it. Just because gksu/gksudo are more recent than 1985 doesn't mean anything. It was still available in Linux long before Vista's release. Can we all write letters to the patent office pointing out the GLARING prior art?
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12
elisabeth mitchell - 02/05/07
hhmmm s sudo invented it.
Have we never heard of VAX VMS or MVS.
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13
Mackenzie - 04/05/07
Elisabeth, I said, "there were others before it." I know asroot was around before sudo, but sudo is the most well-known implementation, though not the first either.
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14
elisabeth mitchell - 04/05/07
so NOW we want to be correct on what was actually said.
Watson does not say Micrsoft invented it.
Stick to the facts.
Sudo in your view may be most well know now for new players in security space as yourself. For those of us that have been around all of them are an "architecural" copy of what came before back in the 60's. Architecturally for any operating system it is the right solution, good to see it is now being adopted.
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15
Ismail Farghaly - 04/05/07
well i do have to say finally microsoft shows a clear sign alertness to linux. when they start to copy and steal technologies from Unix and the open source comunity. no matter this wont affect the followers of linux. if anything it gives linux a boost.
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16
hj - 05/05/07
Although this guy never actually says that they invented it, there is a patent in the US Patent Office on Microsofts name that patents this exact behaviour. It was issued in 2005.
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6922784.html
I wonder how that is possible. Sudo has been around since 1980
http://www.sudo.ws/sudo/history.html
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17
Watson's Nemisis - 04/06/07
Watson said "Microsoft, purely because of its breadth and knowledge in the security space is ideally placed to deliver [security and antivirus] solutions".
Yeah Watson, in Bizarro world!
Purely because if it's poor track record Microsoft has created the market for security and anti virus solutions
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