Windows 8 has been designed by Microsoft to have added security measures that, in theory, would defeat hackers from being able to boot Microsoft"s latest operating system without some protocols in place. Now one person has demonstrated via a new video that he can defeat Microsoft"s User Account Control on Windows 8 via a 14KB bootkit called Stoned Lite.
The video comes from a security researcher named Peter Kleissner who, as we previously reported, had already announced his plans to release a bootkit for Windows 8 earlier this week. He made the video as part of the presentation for the MalCon conference in Mumbai, India. Kleissner has previously released a bootkit called Stoned for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2003 that installed into the OS"s kernel in order for the user to gain full access to even encrypted drives within the PC.
This new bootkit does not attack Windows 8"s UEFI or secure boot features, according to Kleissner. He also claims to have informed Microsoft about his new Stoned Lite bootkit in advance of the MalCon conference. While he has released a paper and presentation about the new Windows 8-targeted bootkit on his official web site, the actual source code for Stoned Lite has yet to be released to the public.