Symantec: Vista vulnerable to legacy exploits

If I had to take a bet on who really knows what the security situation in Windows Vista is like, I would put my money on the security vendors. After all, knowing security is their business. To that end, the folks over at Symantec have released a series of papers that detail their findings after months of Vista security testing. As you might expect, the results aren't pretty: Symantec claims that Vista suffers from many of the same security vulnerabilities that plagued earlier versions of Windows. "There are existing codes that can survive Vista without being modified--[certain] keyloggers, worms, Trojans, and spyware are able to survive," Symantec researcher Ollie Whitehouse said. While many of these weaknesses have yet to be taken advantage of in exploits, Symantec thinks that it's only a matter of time until the hackers catch on. While Microsoft claims that Vista is the most secure Windows yet, this news does not bode well for enterprises looking to deploy the operating system. Microsoft has responded to a few of the specific threats that Symantec cites and claims that it will issue fixes in the first service pack.

For more on Symantec's claims:
- see this eWeek article