The End of Rootkits

Microsoft’s Bob Muglia has made public the company’s plans to secure 64-bit versions of Windows from dangerous malware such as rootkits.

According to remarks attributed the senior vice president of the Windows server group, Microsoft had put in place a “patch guard” on the Windows kernel, which would make it impossible to append code to the core of the OS while it was running.

Such a design would stop software such as rootkits from hitching into kernel software processes as a means to make themselves appear legitimate.