Avecto the world leader in Windows privilege management, today announced that its award winning privilege management solution, Privilege Guard, provides protection against code injection threats that exist in the default configuration of User Account Control (UAC) on Windows 7.
"The threats have existed since the beta of Windows 7, and could allow malware to run with elevated privileges without prompting the user, assuming the UAC slider is left at its default setting", says Mark Austin, CTO. "It's vital to understand that the UAC slider is a compromise between security and usability, and I would always recommend that anyone relying on UAC should change its default security setting to always prompt".
Avecto released a security update for Privilege Guard at the beginning of this year to protect running processes against potential code injection threats. This added protection ensures that Avecto continues to help its customers to achieve the least risk Windows 7 desktop.
Privilege Guard is configured through Group Policy, and only applications that are included within the policies are elevated, removing the decision from the end user. For more advanced users, on demand elevation allows the user to elevate applications, as required, with a full audit trail, including application forensics. With Privilege Guard, all users logon with a standard user account and only the applications that require privileged access are elevated. Privilege Guard integrates closely with UAC, and can completely suppress UAC prompts or replace them with more corporate aligned messaging, which is crucial when informing users of their actions.
Update: Privilege Guard is now Defendpoint
Privilege Guard has now evolved into the new security suite, Defendpoint, which encompasses Privilege Management, Application Control and Sandboxing. For more information, please visit www.avecto.com/defendpoint.