Vista "Bootkit" Proof of Concept

By my own definition, a rootkit "is a set of tools and utilities that a hacker can use to maintain access once they have hacked a system." Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista, is their most secure operating system to date, and there have been issues between Microsoft and security software vendors about their new efforts to secure and protect the operating system kernel. But, don't let "most secure operating system to date" be confused with "completely secure and impenatrable". It simply means "more secure than the last one." Two graduate students from India have developed a tool which they allege can bypass most, if not all, of Vista's security. Their "bootkit" is a utility which acts in many ways like a rootkit, but it loads from the boot sector of a CD, DVD, USB flash drive or other removable media. They have not released the code publicly...sort of. Previous versions exist on their site, along with source code. So, they may as well have released it publicly. But, as of yet, the proof of concept has only been shared with some AV vendors. For more about this threat to Vista security, read this interview with the developers on The Register Owning Vista From The Boot.