I would like to clarify some aspects from the Elias post regarding Microsoft signed software. The fact that anybody could install MS signed software using Active Setup component in not very important. The issue is : MS can silently execute any code in our Windows systems just using their signature. MS has privileged their code, even if your IE security setting "Download signed ActiveX" is set to prompt MS software will be installed without prompting the user. It seems that MS has left a back door that will allow them to perform any action in the Windows systems just visiting a WEB page or opening an e-mail message. I have prepared a demo in : http://www.angelfire.com/ab/juan123/iengine.html This demo shows the diferent behaviour of IE when the ActiveX is signed by MS or signed by others. This issue opens a big security and privacy hole, MS can take complete control over our systems using this backdoor. In this backdoor acceptable ? In my opinion It is not, I have worked 18 years for diferent OS software manufacturers and I have never installed one line of code without a previous user approval.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 13 2001 - 15:36:34 PDT