Symantec Attacks Windows Vista's Security Features

Symantec executives are at Microsoft's jugular accusing the Redmond Company that the security features implemented in the upcoming Windows Vista will generate issues with the integration of third party software. The context of the problem highlighted by Symantec aims to suggest monopoly behavior on the part of the Redmond Company, as the US software giant has released its own security products OneCare and Antigen. "There's no question that they're leveraging a monopolistic position to limit customer choice," stated Chris Paden a Symantec spokesman.

The issues emphasized by Symantec revolve around Vista's Windows Security Center and PatchGuard(for 64-bit versions of the operating system). "It's not anti-competitive behavior, because Vista hasn't even hit the market yet", Paden said. While Microsoft is defending the features, Symantec has all but actually accused the Redmond Company of antitrust violations.

The kernel protections introduced with Windows Vista have captured the spotlight before, but now is Symantec's turn to point out that PatchGuard locks third party security solutions out of the kernel. "There are a lot of new exploits coming out that exploit kernel-level drivers, " said Eric Sites, vice president of research and development with Sunbelt Software. "If we're able to get into the kernel, we can watch for things like that, but with what Microsoft is doing we can't do that."

"We think that there's a significant amount of confusion around... certain security features in the product that we think raise the foundation," said Stephen Toulouse, a senior product manager in the Security Technology Unit at Microsoft. "What we're doing is we're walling off the kernel from attackers, because the functionality that is currently there was never meant to be used by anybody -- by software vendors or attackers."