An article review.

The User Account Control bug allowed for malicious code to run with the highest privileges

While Windows 10 promises to be the most secure version of the operating system yet, it’s not entirely free from bugs as security researchers pointed out recently.

The new exploit targets the Disk Cleanup and Silent Cleanup functions of the operating system, both of which are granted administrator-level access by Windows’ User Account Control function. In a worst case scenario, malicious code could be inserted into the programs, which would then run at the highest privilege levels on the target system.

While the researchers offer a solution, it involves altering internal Windows settings and can cause other problems with regular operation, leading them to conclude Microsoft should change the privilege level of the applications involved instead. For their part Microsoft is not treating this as a security bug, claiming that User Account Control is not a security measure.

Original article by Henry T. Casey writing for Laptop Magazine.