With the current model kernel level access is required. Real security products have to be able to operate above userland. Ideally in the future there can be a layer in between userland and kernel for this sort of thing. Maybe we use some of those extra protection rings?
Oh you're totally right about the driver APIs. A fair amount has been added, but that stuff gets a new export to avoid breaking anything. For example, there's a dozen different `ExAllocate`s now. I wouldn't call myself a driver-writing expert but I'm sure that same driver for Vista could be made to target Windows 10 with little effort.
I'm talking about the kernel space itself, not the APIs exposed to userland to interface with the kernel from your application. Internal APIs and behaviors are mostly identical over the past ~20 years, and any changes are usually moved to a new export. I don't think this should be taken for granted.
A fair amount has been changed or added, I'd say. I recommend the Windows Internals book if you're interested in learning about the Windows kernel. The 7th edition just came out.
Until I started working at a SaaS company shipping to Windows enterprise customers I thought PowerShell wasn't used by anyone. Now I see it all the time. It's not fantastic, but if you're in the Windows world it beats writing CMD scripts.
As an end user though I imagine most people use bash or some other unix-world shell, especially post WSL. The "Git Bash" distribution is surprisingly useful as an everyday Windows shell.
I haven't profiled our Windows kernel driver across different kernel versions (maybe I should!) but I'd like to offer this perspective: the kernel is incredibly stable from my driver development point of view. The biggest reason we ship different drivers for Windows 7/8/10 is just that newer WDKs don't support anything older than 10. The kernel has remained remarkably consistent while still offering new features we can take advantage of on non-legacy systems.
Alignment could definitely be a challenge. Perhaps a better personal solution would be to write something to combine two fonts in a way that also solves alignment. Not a very "accessible" solution but definitely easier.
pannen's commentated videos are always a treat. He started uploading again this year after a long hiatus (that started after this video) and I can't wait for more.
If you're interested in Super Mario 64 speedruns, the video[0] "The Story of the Greatest Super Mario 64 Speedrunners" is great.
Linux desktop users specifically don't have to worry about malware or ransomware until it gets significant usage. Just like people used to say Macs don't get viruses until enough people used them.
Last time I checked (could be very out of date) Linux doesn't have any way to enforce code signing requirements, even in the kernel.
The difference might be that workers have an interest in maintaining the business so they still have well paid jobs while CEOs do not necessarily have an interest in unions' well-being.
Cool! I'm relatively young, so the only interaction I've ever had with a rotary phone was my dad finding one in a box at my grandparents' house. Still, this seems like fun. Cool that you can communicate with the cell modem directly.
Third parties are perfectly capable of making replacement parts that match the OEM parts in functionality and quality. This has no effect on integration. The other parts of the phone don't care who manufactured the part, unless they were programmed to, as long as they are functionally equivalent. The user certainly doesn't care who manufactured the part as it does not effect the user experience.
In the Super Smash Bros. Melee competitive scene we still use CRTs for in-person tournaments because of the input lag on LCDs. Most original hardware available to play the game doesn't have a digital display output unless you have an early model GameCube and purchase a ~$100 HDMI adapter. Even if you get the hardware setup for modern digital output, most LCD monitors still have poor response times without spending the extra money for a "gaming" monitor.
There has been a lot of work by modders to reduce the input lag introduced by the game engine itself to offset the lag introduced by LCD monitors, but I hope someday LCDs can catch up in this last metric.
The T runs mostly on a separate rail, but there are a number of places in city limits where it runs with cars on the street. Check out Arlington Avenue in Allentown (the Pittsburgh neighborhood, not the city).
If I understand correctly, this is just a kernel-mode snippit to copy the System process token to your target process. It assumes you've already found a vulnerable driver to execute code in the kernel. If you can execute code in the kernel then yeah, you can give processes privileges they didn't have before.