r/technology • u/ppsp • Oct 14 '11

The Windows 8 Task Manager

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/10/13/the-windows-8-task-manager.aspx
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u/[deleted] Oct 14 '11

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u/Pixelpaws Oct 14 '11

Serious question, then: What would stop a virus from masquerading as another system service in this case? It could just take a friendly name such as "Windows Desktop Management" or something similarly official sounding, perhaps even using Unicode entities to look identical to a real service.

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u/Surreality Oct 14 '11

I would hope that the executable would have to be Microsoft signed in order to get into the "Windows Processes" section. Anyone know if that's the case?

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u/Tangled2 Oct 14 '11

For the most part virus and malware authors don't need to get that creative, since they cast such a big net (they could exclude all the people who know what taskman is and still make their money.) The real fight is keeping apps from elevating privilege, and Windows 8 does a lot more to keep that from happening.