Vista UAC Annoying and Possibly Unreliable

by Barbara Eastom Bates | More from this Blogger

25 Feb 2007 06:05 PM

One of the new features (or annoyances, depending on how you look at it) of Windows Vista is the User Account Control (UAC).

Theoretically, it helps stop unauthorized changes to your computer by requiring confirmation before an administrative application or task is run. Practically, it's a big pain in the butt.

I don't mind the warnings that come when I want to install a new program:

"Warning- an unidentified program wants access to your computer. Cancel or Allow?"

With the abundant occurrence of back door malware installations, it's reassuring to have a little extra security.

I start to get a bit grumpy, however, when I have to re-approve the same PC game I've played every night for a week because Vista refuses to recognize the permissions I've already given it.

Perhaps the annoyance would be worth the extra security if it were actually secure. Yet newly released reports from Symantec indicate the UAC can be spoofed and shouldn't be completely trusted.

The most likely scenario for a UAC spoof, according to Symantec architect Ollie Whitehouse, would involve a typical hacker trick such as a trojan horse or exploitation of vulnerability in a third-party application. Once the system became compromised by malicious code, the result would be system messages appearing to come from the UAC that would trick the user into granting the attacker full access and complete control of the system.

Should you decide the UAC isn't worth the trouble for the possibly dubious protection, you can disable it through MSCONFIG. Hat tip to Petri IT Knowledgebase for this tip:

1. Launch MSCONFIG by from the Run menu.

2. Click on the Tools tab. Scroll down till you find "Disable UAP" (this should probably change to UAC in next Vista beta builds and in the RTM version). Click on that line.

3. Press the Launch button. 4. A CMD window will open. When the command is done, you can close the window.

5. Close MSCONFIG. You need to reboot the computer for changes to apply.

Note that you can re-enable UAC by selecting the "Enable UAP" line and then clicking on the Launch button.

Learn more about Barbara Eastom Bates

Barbara Eastom Bates is a freelance writer and self-professed computer geek living in southern California.

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