The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) has announced that Windows 7 Autorun will have changes.
Many malware and viruses is taking advantage of the AutoRun functionality as a spread mechanism. AutoRun purpose is to provide a software response to hardware that inserted by the user.
The Windows 7 engineering team made 2 important changes:
- AutoPlay will only support CD/DVDs but not for USB drives.
- Clarify that the program being executed is running from external media.
Before the change (left) After the change (right)
Note: In the following example for a USB flash drive that has photos, malware registers as the benign task of “Open folders to view files.” If you select the first “Open folders to view files” (red box), you would be running malware. However, if you select the second task (green box), you would be safe running the Windows task.
Note: In the following example for a USB flash drive that has photos, malware registers as the benign task of “Open folders to view files.” If you select the first “Open folders to view files” (red box), you would be running malware. However, if you select the second task (green box), you would be safe running the Windows task.
