Anyone who uses Windows actually gets solid protection with Defender. But the Microsoft tool can be easily bypassed.
According to AV-TEST, Microsoft Defender was one of the best virus protection applications in 2023. In the test, the Enterprise version achieved top marks in terms of speed, usability and protection. Security expert John Pagewho operates under the pseudonym hyp3rlinx, was able to find a simple means by which the protection of Microsoft Defender can be easily circumvented.
If you don’t want to deal with Windows security vulnerabilities, switching to a Mac might make sense. Our video with the cult Apple commercial by legendary director Ridley Scott might give you a taste.
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Microsoft Defender: A simple trick is enough
In fact, Page drew attention to a gap in Microsoft’s antivirus program as early as 2022. Accordingly, the security researcher found a security hole that could easily be exploited with a path traversal – i.e. just with the character string “.. “. The Redmond IT group has already fixed this error, but a more recent security notice from Page points to another vulnerability.
Normally, Microsoft Defender protects the important utility „rundll32.exe“ from outside access. However, the security researcher was recently able to identify a gap that attackers can exploit even without in-depth hacking knowledge – just with a comma. If the user types the command Rundll32.exe javascript:”….mshtml,RunHTMLApplication “;alert(666) into the console, access is denied. However, access can be granted with one or more additional commas in this command This will take place on the entire local network, for example rundll32.exe javascript:”….mshtml,,RunHTMLApplication “;alert(666) When typed into the console, no warning is issued, but rather “666” – which can then be used to execute malicious code.
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How dangerous is the gap?
John Page rates the vulnerability as high in severity, but the BSI (Federal Office for Information Security) also issues a warning. However, the authority only describes the gap as “moderately severe”. How far Microsoft is in closing the gap cannot be said at this point. However, the company is known for regularly providing its own Defender with updates and patches. Even though Microsoft assured in October 2023 that the security application automatically detects and defends against human attacks, this gap is still an embarrassment for the company.
You can find out how much value you place on IT security in the quiz:
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