Introducing Windows 10 for IT Professionals, Preview Edition by Ed Bott

Author:Ed Bott
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Published: 2015-07-21T16:00:00+00:00

Securing identities

Passwords are, to put it mildly, notoriously ineffective at protecting devices and data. They’re too easily stolen: on the client by keylogging software or phishing attempts, and on the server by data breaches that give intruders access to large sets of user names and passwords. And because humans frequently reuse those passwords, a breach on one site can lead to intrusions on other sites that use the same credentials.

An attacker also can steal a user-access token from a compromised machine and then use that token to steal additional tokens. The attacker never has the user name or password, but possessing a stash of hashed credentials is good enough to allow persistent access over time. This technique is called a “Pass the Hash” attack.

Windows 10 includes fundamental architectural changes designed to fundamentally prevent both forms of attack.

For starters, beginning with Windows 10 the derived credentials (hashes) that are used in “Pass the Hash” attacks are moved into Virtual Secure Mode, the same Hyper-V protected container that is used for Windows Code Integrity services.

As part of this architectural change, Windows 10 implements new services called Next Generation Credentials, bringing identity protection to a new level. These features are not yet available as part of the Windows 10 Technical Preview, but the associated services are installed and waiting to be activated, as you can see from Figure 4-3.

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