June 13, 2005
Pipedreams: "Hypervisor" - Virtualization built into post-longhorn Windows
Microsoft offers details on built-in virtualization
6/8/2005 3:43:09 PM, by Eric Bangeman
At the TechEd conference earlier this week, Microsoft provided some details on its homegrown virtualization software that it plans to build "directly into Windows." Slated to ship in 2007 (post Longhorn Server), the "hypervisor" will differ from the company's Virtual Server product in that it sits directly on top of the hardware, instead of running as an application, according to Bob Muglia, a Microsoft senior vice president in the Windows Server Division.
and this from cnet which mentions (umpa lumpa) XEN
Microsoft 'hypervisor' plan takes shape
Published: June 7, 2005, 1:47 PM PDT
By Mike Ricciuti - Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Microsoft hasn't decided how to package and sell the software. It could come in a service pack release after the debut of Longhorn Server, Muglia said.
Microsoft's rival in this area is an open-source software package called Xen, which has rapidly gained the support of Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Novell, Red Hat, Intel, AMD and IBM. Those companies have offered Xen support in the form of endorsements, programming help and software contributions. Xen doesn't yet support Windows, however.
Posted by cystdog at 05:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 03, 2005
Son of SP5: Microsoft finally rolls out W2K Update Rollup
Microsoft to Roll Out Windows 2000 Update Rollup
EWeek Enterprise news
June 2, 2005
By Ryan Naraine
Microsoft Corp. plans to announce as early as next week that it is ready to ship a Windows 2000 Update Rollup, the final security patch for the 5-year-old operating system.
The Update Rollup, which replaces Windows 2000 SP5 (Service Pack 5), is a cumulative set of hot fixes, security patches and critical updates packaged together for easy deployment.
"The [quality assurance] tests are done, and it's ready to go. An announcement is imminent," a Microsoft source told Ziff Davis Internet News.
An announcement could coincide with the company's TechEd conference, scheduled for Orlando, Fla., next week.
The Update Rollup will contain all security-related updates produced for Windows 2000 between the time SP4 was released and the date the update ships. It will also feature a small number of important, non-security updates.
The Update Rollup comes just one month before mainstream support for Windows 2000 client and server releases expires on June 30. Microsoft divides its support lifecycle into two phases: mainstream and extended. Once a product enters the extended support period, Microsoft charges for support.
Posted by cystdog at 11:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 18, 2005
Breaking the Holy Law: Browsing the Web as administrator?
Security Developer Center: Columns: Browsing the Web and Reading E-mail Safely as an Administrator Part 1 Part 2
I got the heads up to this pair of MSDN articles by Microsoft Security Engineering Michael Howard off the activedir list and thought it was pretty interesting. The pair of articles discuss techniques of using SAFER to run IE and other applications using restricted tokens, stripped of various privileges and SIDs, and through local or enterprise "Software Restriction Policies" in the GPO.
The first article (Part 1) discusses using SAFER (Software Restriction Policies) through API functions like SaferCreateLevel and SaferComputeTokenFromLevel through an app offered called "DropMyRights".
The second article lays out how use the group policy editor to modify Software Restriction Policies, focusing on setting app permissions for the "Basic User".
The first article references Aaron Margosis'WebLog, "The Non-Admin blog - running with least privilege on the desktop". It's a gold mind of tip and techniques.
Posted by cystdog at 09:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
