Microsoft Won't Touch WebGL Due To Vulnerable Video Drivers

Driver Vulnerability Risks Too Great

At the heart of the company’s concern is the fact that the WebGL approach could allow a malicious Web site to exploit a computer’s video and graphics hardware to get to system-level functions that are usually insulated from such attacks. Because of the way WebGL (and OpenGL) are designed, there is no good way to resolve the concerns. In addition, the open source nature of the WebGL development gives Microsoft additional pause.

Video and graphics drivers have never been considered a possible attack vector, and aren’t hardened the way other potentially vulnerable parts of the operating system are. Changing the way WebGL works won’t necessarily resolve the list of open issues. The problem is more related to potential vulnerabilities in the most common video and graphics drivers, which are written by third party manufacturers. Microsoft (and other browser authors that have already implemented WebGL support) don’t have enough control over driver construction to ensure that users will have a safe experience while using WebGL services. Microsoft has publicly complained that these hardware driver authors have never before been concerned about device security, so it’s unlikely that they will begin writing more secure hardware driver code as part of their WebGL support.

Microsoft has long history of dealing with security flaws and the resulting exploits. In recent versions of the operating system, the company has gone to great lengths to ensure that its operating system and component parts are safe and secure. Having made user security a significant element of its product development cycle, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the company would reject WebGL on the basis of security.

WebGL support has been built into the latest version of Firefox, Chrome and Safari, although it is not enabled by default in Safari, as it is in Firefox and Chrome. For its part, Microsoft states that it believes that WebGL will become a source of “hard-to-fix vulnerabilities.” The widespread adoption of WebGL remains to be seen. While the service is attractive to the gaming community because it provides hardware accelerated graphics for Web-based games, nagging concerns about security may see the majority of users disabling WebGL support at the browser level.

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Signed Windows Driver Protection Subject Of New Rootkit Attack

BlackHole Exploit Kit Turns Off Signed Driver Requirement

Not all system are vulnerable to the attack, but for those systems with unpatched versions of Java or Adobe Reader, to suppress the Patchguard function that checks for signed Windows drivers. Patchguard is designed to protect 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server. With Patchguard out of the way, additional malware exploits can be loaded that disable anti-virus and anti-malware programs.

The first step to take, of course, is to ensure that systems with vulnerable versions of Java and Reader are patched. These patches come from the manufacturer and can be applied quickly. For systems with continued vulnerability, the absence of Patchguard by itself won’t raise many (if any) ripples, since Patchguard usually works in the background unless a problem arises.

Other programs that may be disabled as part of the exploit are more likely to tip off a user that something is wrong. Anti-malware software that doesn’t work correctly, doesn’t issue standard alerts, or exhibits unusual behavior could be a clue that something is not right with the system.

This underscores the importance of keeping your system, including your Windows drivers and applications updated. Most people think that operating system flaws are the only source of OS insecurity. The BlackHole Exploit Kit demonstrates quite neatly that applications that interact with the OS at a low level also have the ability to impact the overall security of the system.

Keeping your OS patched and your drivers updated is of limited value if you don’t also keep your applications up-to-date. Hackers and other malware programmers will look for exploits in the most common applications and OS extensions. That Java and Flash, as well as “utility” applications like browsers, PDF readers, and viewers of one sort or another.

By keeping your entire system properly updated, you can keep your computer protected. You should also be aware of what constitutes proper and improper behavior from your computer, and investigate when unusual events start to occur.

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Windows Update May or May Not Include Updated Drivers

The Long And Short Of Windows Updates

Microsoft works closely with hardware vendors to ensure that hardware drivers are updated correctly and consistently. That doesn’t mean Microsoft has any sway over businesses that don’t update their Windows drivers, and it doesn’t mean that you’ll get your Windows driver updates through Microsoft when the hardware vendor makes a new driver update available.

That leaves users in the same position they’ve always been in: if you get your driver updates from Microsoft, apply them, but don’t assume that because you didn’t get a driver update from Microsoft that there are no driver updates for your hardware.

Ultimately, you need to check with the hardware manufacturer to determine whether or not a Windows driver update is available, and if one is, does it apply to your computer.

I’m not sure which is worse: not updating drivers at all, or applying the wrong driver to your system. I tend to think that going without driver updates will eventually catch up with you. On the other hand, applying the wrong driver may sink your system quite neatly, or it may not permit your hardware to interface with the computer correctly in all (or any) circumstances. Either way, the outcome seems similar, doesn’t it?

Driver updates are motivated by a couple of reasons. Either the OS manufacturer has updated something that has “broken” an existing driver. In that case, you’ll know about your driver problem immediately after you install the system update and your hardware stops working.

Another major motivator behind driver updates is bug fixing. If you have hardware and it fails to operate under certain conditions, the failure might be the result of faulty or incomplete programming on the part of the manufacturer. These driver problems express themselves typically as hardware failures or function failures under certain circumstances. You want these updates because you want to have access to the full range of your hardware’s capabilities.

I don’t rely on Microsoft to find driver updates for my hardware. I use Driver Detective to locate and install new drivers. Driver Detective also stores a backup copy of each driver, and can tell if a driver has become corrupted or is missing. Driver Detective does the work associated with finding the correct hardware driver, and I can be sure that my Windows hardware drivers are always up-to-date.

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Driver Detective Will Manage Your Windows Drivers

What’s The Worst That Could Happen?

We’ve all asked that question when it comes to updating or upgrading a system. The “worst that could happen” is that you foul up a working system. Windows drivers that had been working correctly may stop working, or hardware functions that you value may suddenly go dark.

This sets off a cycle of searching for driver updates for your hardware. If you find updated drivers, you download them, not knowing whether they’ll work or not. Some technicians swear by the method of removing the old Windows driver before installing the updated hardware driver. Others simply install the new driver and keep on rolling.

Setting aside the installation results for a moment, hunting for and downloading drivers is the most time-consuming part of the process. Many technicians still use the time-honored “go to the vendor site” route. This method gives you a little more control over the process than automatic driver updates through Windows do. It also may put you in touch with the correct hardware driver sooner than Windows Update will.

Not all computers are configured to update drivers automatically. Although this is what Microsoft recommends, some users prefer to do things the old-fashioned way, usually after having been burned by a bad update, or by missing out on critical driver updates.

I prefer to use Driver Detective to manage my Windows driver updates. Driver Detective will locate, download, install and back up your Windows drivers. It will also completely remove old driver software from your system files to prevent it from loading or conflicting with new versions of your drivers.

With Driver Detective, you don’t have to hunt for new drivers, or worry that you’ve accidentally downloaded and installed the incorrect version of a driver for your computer. Driver Detective will also monitor the function of your drivers to determine whether the installed drivers are operating properly. If a driver is corrupted or has gone missing, Driver Detective will install a fresh copy so you don’t have to.

Driver Detective works with any version of Windows, which is why I trust Driver Detective to keep Windows hardware drivers up-to-date.

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Signed Windows Drivers Not A Surefire Protection

Windows 7 First To Require Signed Drivers

As one way to address this issue, Microsoft began to require the use of digitally signed drivers when it introduced Windows 7. A digitally signed driver identifies the author of the driver and generally “vouches” for the source code as being authentic. Sounds like a good way to ensure that only legitimate drivers are installed, but there are two ways around the signed driver issue.

First, users can load unsigned drivers but must agree to do this at boot time. This means each time the OS loads and encounters an unsigned driver, the user must authorize the installation of the unsigned driver. The boot process stops until the authorization is received. Naturally, this gets to be a pain pretty quickly, but it does draw attention to the fact that the user is authorizing potentially unsafe behavior.

There are also some “non-standard” ways to self-sign a driver that will satisfy the Windows UAC complaints regarding unsigned drivers, but we will not address that here. Again, the fact that a user “self-signs” the driver is a good indicator that the action is risky and should only be attempted if the driver software is known to be good, and has not been violated or corrupted by malware.

Second, malware engineers can “hijack” signed drivers, which is what’s happened in the case of Stuxnet. Stuxnet, as you recall, is a worm that uses a stolen driver authorization and has the ability to fool both system software and anti-virus software. The target of Stuxnet isn’t your PC at home, though this worm might indeed infect your computer. As of now, the true target of Stuxnet is thought to be major infrastructure systems like power plants and other industrial targets.

Don’t get too comfortable with Stuxnet, though. While your computer probably isn’t running a nuclear power plant or controlling traffic lights, Stuxnet is also a “proof-of-concept” for other malware authors who have a different set of goals in mind for your unused processor cycles. The issue of stolen driver signatures must be addressed in current and future versions of Windows because clearly, relying on the presence or absence of a digital signature on a Windows driver is simply not enough.

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Driver Detective Is A Timesaver

Driver Detective Does What You Don’t Have Time To Do

Driver Detective saves me a lot of time. Whether I’m troubleshooting a driver problem or just performing routine maintenance, I need to spend some amount of time with the computer. With Driver Detective, however, I don’t need to check on the status of the installed drivers, because Driver Detective does that for me.

I don’t need to figure out whether a driver has gotten corrupted or deleted because Driver Detective watches the installed drivers and can tell me whether something has gone wrong. I don’t need to spend even one minute going out to a manufacturer’s Web site and checking for driver updates because Driver Detective does that, too. When a driver update is released, Driver Detective automatically downloads it and installs it.

I don’t need to back up a copy of the installed driver because Driver Detective will take care of that for me. I also don’t need to back up the registry before I install a new driver because Driver Detective has that covered, too. In fact, I don’t even need to install new driver updates because once again, Driver Detective takes care of that.

If you’ve ever performed these steps manually, you already know how much a driver management program like Driver Detective can help. If you’ve never downloaded drivers for your hardware, I invite you to spend an afternoon searching for the correct drivers for your hardware, downloading them, and installing them. It’s not fun, but it is time-consuming. You also run the risk that one or more of your driver downloads will goof up something else on your computer. Then you can have the experience of rolling back a driver update and restoring the backup copy of your registry. (You did remember to back up the registry, didn’t you?)

After spending an afternoon on this little project, you’ll understand why I like, use and recommend Driver Detective.

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Bad Or Missing Windows Drivers Can Cause Big Problems

Driver Problems Come In Many Shapes And Sizes

Drivers are files, so they’re subject to the same limitations that other files are. They can get corrupted, misplaced or deleted. When this happens, the computer is unable to access the related hardware properly. A corrupted driver may partially function, which will cause your hardware (or your computer) to behave erratically when you try to use the device. In other cases, the corrupted driver won’t work at all, meaning that you have no access to your device.

Driver problems can also occur when you install system updates that overwrite a portion of the driver software, or that don’t interact properly with your old driver. In this case, the driver usually stops functioning altogether. Attempts to access the driver can cause the computer to freeze or crash.

Last but not least, manufacturers may issue new drivers to correct problems with an existing driver, enable new functions, or improve compatibility with the operating system. You may not notice any behavior problems with your device or computer, but you won’t have the benefit of the updates, either.

In the distant past, users were responsible for locating, downloading and installing the correct driver for their hardware. Windows came with a few “generic” drivers for required hardware like displays, mice and keyboards. More recently, Windows has been redesigned to locate and install driver updates, and comes with a large collection of drivers.

Unfortunately, these additions don’t reduce the amount of time it takes to do driver maintenance. Sometimes, Windows doesn’t have the updated driver, or doesn’t know about it. Windows also occasionally downloads and installs the wrong driver for your hardware. (This can cause a number of problems for you, including functions that don’t work or devices that are inaccessible.)

When this happens, you can plan to spend extra time troubleshooting the problem, locating the correct driver, uninstalling the wrong driver, and installing the correct driver. Doing driver maintenance is an unpleasant prospect, to say the least.

I have turned all of my driver maintenance tasks over to Driver Detective. Driver Detective locates, downloads, installs and backs up the correct driver for your device. Driver Detective also monitors the operation of your drivers and replaces drivers that have gotten corrupted or gone missing. Once Driver Detective is configured, you don’t have to do anything except enjoy working on a well-maintained computer.

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Looking For Windows Drivers Doesn't Have To Be A Major Time Commitment

Drivers Abound, Just Not Always In The Right Places

Windows drivers are available by the millions. That’s right; over time, there have been literally millions of hardware drivers written for the Windows operating system. That’s because there have been millions of peripherals designed to work with windows. Everything, from printers to keyboards to specialized hardware, requires a driver to allow the hardware to communicate with the computer.

Drivers don’t just happen and Microsoft isn’t responsible for writing drivers; hardware manufacturers are. When hardware manufacturers don’t write updated drivers, they’re essentially walking away from one of their products. Without a driver, the hardware won’t work properly, if at all. Older drivers might suffice, but chances are good that when an operating system changes radically – like the difference between Windows XP and Windows 7 is – there’s a good bet that a new driver is in order.

There’s no income involved for the manufacturer in writing a new driver for old hardware. Drivers are given away at no cost. Ongoing driver support represents the commitment a company makes to a hardware product, as well as an acknowledgment by the company that hardware can function admirably well past the manufacturer’s desire to continue supporting it.

Many peripheral manufacturers took a flyer on writing drivers for Vista, largely because Vista wasn’t a big commercial success. That approach is now causing problems for consumers who want to upgrade to Windows 7, and who still want to use their older hardware. Many manufacturers haven’t done the legwork needed to write a Vista driver, and the absence of a Vista driver significantly lessens the chance that a Windows 7 driver will be forthcoming.

For its part, Microsoft attempted to head off this problem by including a virtualization mode in Windows 7 that will enable the computer to run Windows XP. In virtual XP mode, the old XP drivers will still work. Unfortunately, the computer’s BIOS must support virtualization – a trick that many aging computers don’t.

If you’ve got an older piece of hardware that you don’t want to – or can’t – replace, and your computer can run Windows XP virtually, you can still access your older hardware and enjoy the benefits of Windows 7. (Just not simultaneously.)

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Driver Detective Can Save Time

Driver Detective Takes The Work Out Of Driver Management

I was reading about the cost of printer ink not too long ago, and it seems that no one knows exactly how much ink a cartridge contains or how many pages it will print. In tracking down more information on printer ink cartridges, I ran across a couple of articles on how to find drivers for your printers once you’ve switched to Windows 7.

After reading the articles, my only thought was that the tips the author suggested were rather time-intensive. If a person has enough time to visit the manufacturer’s Web site, locate the correct driver, download it, install it and then verify that the printer operates correctly, it’s one thing. Most people I know don’t have time to do this, or worse, repeat this step for every hardware device attached to their computer. Even worse, this method will need to be repeated periodically to check for driver updates – a notorious consequence of OS patches.

Who has time for that? I know I don’t and I make my living working on computers. What about the people who simply use computers or have them in their homes? I’m a big fan of doing things once – the right way. It saves time, money and aggravation. In the case of locating new drivers for your computer, “doing something the right way” means finding a program that will locate drivers for you – preferably with a high degree of accuracy. Even better, it means finding a program that locates, downloads and installs the correct driver, knows when updates occur, automatically fetches all updates and knows when an installed driver has been damaged or deleted.

Driver Detective is the best of the driver management software programs I’ve found. Windows comes with a load of drivers and can even find new driver updates if it’s properly configured. Unfortunately, Windows sometimes makes mistakes and loads the wrong driver. Driver Detective, on the other hand, has a database of millions of drivers and can easily locate the correct driver for your exact hardware configuration.

In terms of saving time, there’s nothing that beats Driver Detective when it comes to driver management. Unless, of course, you like spending a lot of time looking for drivers…

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Finding Windows Drivers Has Never Been Easier

Looking Out For Updated Drivers

Updated drivers may be required if Microsoft updates its operating system. I’m not talking about the major upgrades, although updated drivers are almost certainly a by-product of those. I’m talking about the patches that Microsoft puts out now and again. Sometimes, in fixing one thing, the code for an existing driver needs to be rewritten or changed. You may find that after installing an update, a certain piece of hardware no longer works properly. An updated driver may take care of the problem.

Sometimes, security “holes” are discovered that would allow a remote user to take advantage of your computer, install malware or infect your computer with a virus. Updating the driver may take care of a security hole, or make your peripheral devices less vulnerable to this type of attack.

Third, software drivers from the manufacturer sometimes contain errors that the manufacturer wants to correct. In this case, the manufacturer will put out an updated driver to replace an existing one.

Occasionally, the manufacturer wants to enable a new feature or extend an existing feature often thanks to OS updates. A new driver will help an updated computer interact with the peripheral device.

The problem with updated drivers is that most manufacturers don’t announce when they’re going to be released. The average user may not know that an updated driver is available and may only go looking for updated drivers if a problem arises. Windows has been able to detect and download drivers, but many users don’t have their computers configured properly to install new driver updates. In addition, Windows sometimes misidentifies the driver that’s needed. From experience I can say that downloading and installing the wrong driver can be as bad as having no driver at all.
Windows may catch updates, but it won’t catch a misbehaving or corrupted driver, either.

Driver Detective is a driver management program that identifies, downloads, installs and monitors your Windows drivers. If a new driver becomes available, or if your existing installed driver gets corrupted or accidentally removed, Driver Detective will reinstall a fresh copy of the driver seamlessly. I recommend Driver Detective because it does such a good job of maintaining an up-to-date driver library.

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