Security researchers have discovered security shortcomings in Windows 8 that create a means to infect the upcoming operating system with rootkit-style malware.
Italian security consultants ITSEC discovered the security hole following an analysis of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), a successor to the legacy BIOS firmware interface, that Microsoft began fully supporting with 64-bit versions of Windows 7.
ITSEC analysed the UEFI platform now that Microsoft has ported old BIOS and MBR's boot loader to the new UEFI technology in Windows 8. Andrea Allievi, a senior security researcher at ITSEC, was able to use the research to cook up what's billed as the first ever UEFI bootkit designed to hit Windows 8. The proof-of-concept malware is able to defeat Windows 8's Kernel Patch Protection and Driver Signature Enforcement policy.
The UEFI boot loader developed by Allievi overwrites the legitimate Windows 8 UEFI bootloader, bypassing security defences in the process.
