Sure, its a month old, but i still love reading it over

Date: August 05, 2005
Source: PC WORLD
By: Robert McMillan

An Austrian hacker has earned the dubious distinction of writing what are thought to be the first known viruses for Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system. Written in July, the viruses take advantage of a new command shell, code-named Monad, that is included in the Windows Vista beta code.

The viruses were published last month in a virus-writing tutorial written for an underground hacker group calling itself the Ready Ranger Liberation Front, and take advantage of security vulnerabilities in the new command shell. Unlike the traditional Windows graphical user interface, which relies heavily on the mouse for navigation, command shells allow users to employ powerful text-based commands, much as Windows' predecessor, DOS, did.

Who Done It

The viruses were written by a hacker calling himself "Second Part To Hell," and published on July 21, just days after Monad was publicly released by Microsoft, according to Mikko Hyppen, chief research officer with Helsinki's F-Secure. Second Part To Hell is the pseudonym of an Austrian-based hacker who also goes by the name Mario, Hyppen says.

Because of its sophistication, the new command shell offers new opportunities for hackers, Second Part To Hell wrote in the tutorial, a copy of which was obtained by the IDG News Service. "Monad will be like Linux's BASH (Bourne Again Shell)--that means a great number of commands and functions," he wrote. "We will be able to make as huge and complex scripts as we do in Linux."

F-Secure has named the virus family Danom (Monad in reverse). Having examined the code, Hyppen says that the Danom family is disruptive, but not capable of causing significant damage to Windows users. "These are proof-of-concept viruses," he says, "where virus writers want to break new ground and write the first viruses for a new platform."

Most security experts had not expected to see a Windows Vista virus so soon, Hyppen says. "The only surprise here is that it came so early," he says. "It's been eight days since the beta of the operating system was out." Monad was released several days prior to the Windows Vista beta.

HA! Played!

ROFL!!!Can Micro$oft guys do something good?

this is old news........

sure they can, ever used one of their wireless keyboards or played Ages of Empires II?

For the price of a wifi microsoft keyboard I can buy 2 from Logitech
Regarding AOE II....well one good thing does not redeem from years of bad products

Truthfully, if someone had a virus that quickly... that means that the Monad is shit! So apperently the new os already flawed! I understand that it is beta, but still... it shouldn't been that easy!

Like one guy said.
The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is the day they make a vaccuum cleaner.

A robotic one at that.