Has IE 7's Vista "protected mode" been tested?

[acr1965]

I could not see anywhere on the net where "protected mode" was put through the normal wringer of tests against malware. Does anyone know of any?

thanks

[Rico]

Hi Acr1965,

It's my understanding that Vista as well as Apple's 'protected mode' is similar to 'DropMyRights' and lowers the rights/privileges that programs have. Hence malware can't attack the OS. So I guess testing of Vista/IE7 protected mode would be the same as testing a limited account.

Take Care
Rico

[lucas1985]

IE's protected mode goes further (http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/02/09/528963.aspx) than a limited account.

[acr1965]

-{ Quote: "IE's protected mode goes further (http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/02/09/528963.aspx) than a limited account." }-

Interesting piece. It seems like there would be all sorts of people wanting to tests its vulnerabilities. If I am reading things correctly, the piece is nearly 18 months old. Kinda weird nobody has published much about putting it through its paces.

[lucas1985]

There are some reports (http://blogs.authentium.com/virusblog/?p=156) about protected mode preventing malware infections.
-{ Quote: "Speaking of browsers, the damage is mitigated if Internet Explorer 7 is running in Protected Mode. This will still permit the malware to have read-only access to a user’s files, allowing it to steal and copy personal data, but will not be able to alter or delete any data. UAC (User Account Control) in Vista might only be able to prevent installation of persistent malware, but won’t prevent damage to user’s data unless the browser is running in Protected Mode." }-
More information (http://www.google.com.ar/search?hl=es&q=IE+protected+mode&meta=)

[gkweb]

Hello,

With little work, you can run Firefox in protected mode too on Vista (last post) :
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17807814?hilite=uipi

However, you will need to edit yourself the two batch files or run the commands yourself in command line. It has to be done just once to set Firefox with a low integrity level like IE protected mode.

Regards,
gkweb.

EDIT : you can add this line to the batch file if you don't like the "right click to download" workaround :

REM # Temp folder
icacls "C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Local\Temp" /setintegritylevel (OI)(CI)low

[TOMxEU]

-{ Quote: "Kinda weird nobody has published much about putting it through its paces." }-
If someone would post on his webpage, that IE7 is actually safer or has less vulnerabilities than some other browsers, he would loose visitors, so who would do it?! News pages did and do it, but people just ignore it. Also, who interests in Microsoft knows, what both, IE7 in Vista and Vista, provide. These days, almost no one cares about facts, it is about marketing, which says "MS and its products sucks", so who cares about some Protected Mode or UAC, just view MAC ADs. http://www.wilderssecurity.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif