Joanna Rutkowska and Her Demonstration

Joanna Rutkowska is a researcher known for working around with Windows particularly finding vulnerabilities in the software. She is scheduled to showcase her findings at the Black Hat Briefing and Training event in Las Vegas from July 28 to August 2, 2007. There is still no word on the exact schedule when Windows Vista would be exposed with its vulnerabilities.

According to reports, the methods and techniques used in the event would include rootkit and removal of Windows Vista’s protection via its BitLocker technology. A number of vulnerabilities would be exposed during the event, but in any case, it would be confidential to attendees.

Prior to the event, Rutkowska already made public her findings in UAC of Windows Vista but Microsoft explained through Mark Russinovich:

It should be clear then, that neither UAC elevations nor Protected Mode IE define new Windows security boundaries. Microsoft has been communicating this but I want to make sure that the point is clearly heard. Further, as Jim Allchin pointed out in his blog post Security Features vs. Convenience, Vista makes tradeoffs between security and convenience, and both UAC and Protected Mode IE have design choices that required paths to be opened in the IL wall for application compatibility and ease of use.

The cost of attending the event is $3000 when you register before May 31 otherwise you would be charged with $3400.