What makes Microsoft Windows more vulnerable to attacks?

Question

Compared to Unix, Mac and other operating systems, Microsoft seems to be the most vulnerable to spyware, virus, etc...

Is it because hackers prefer to put energy on attacking a more propagated OS?

Is it because hackers hate Microsoft?

Is it because Microsoft has to keep things compatible with old versions that they can't avoid leaving some doors open?

Is it because Microsoft programmers are not good enough?

Is it because Microsoft doesn't care?

If you know the answer, I would like to know it too.
If you guess the answer, Let's see how many think like you.
If you like the question, give me a star (lol).

Roger,
I think you want to show me some vulnerabilities, but all those websites make my antivirus go crazy as "Dangerous web sites", and I prefer to keep them like that. Please explain your point with an answer.

Answer 1

Most operating systems restrict how operating system functions like disk format and file renames/deletes can be called and who can call them. Since Windows integrates applications code into the operating system and requires system admin access to install software anyone can install a virus or malware on a windows system and have full access to operating system functions.
Another problem is that Windows has no capability to protect the copy of the operating system on disk so even if the kernel is corrupted in memory you could reload it from disk(reboot) but since Windows only supports one partition for the OS and applications (C: drive). there is no way to protect it the way that Unix does.
One other problem is that Microsoft does not document all the Application Programming Interfaces and they violate their own programming standards in other MS software such as Office. So programs can branch directly into the operating system without going through the documented API's. Other operating systems do not allow this.

The list of how Windows does not protect itself from attack goes on including not invoking the hardware storage protection function that is available in the Intel chip set.

I would not consider windows an operating system but an application front end driver.

Last but not least since Windows is the most commonly used OS for PC's that is the one that crackers attack. No reason to attack hard to crack systems when you can hit so many easy ones.

Answer 2

The reasons that makes MS Windows so vulnerable to spyware, virus, etc because with the pre-Vista versions, everything is run in Administration mode by defaut unless you explicitly set it. So if a program got infected and it got ran, the whole system got infected since the infected codes ran on Admin Privilege.

With linux, unix and Mac, everything by default is ran under User mode unless you sudo something. So if a program is infected, the code only spreads to user space that the user have privilege (normally there home directory). Important programs are still untouched. Your system still safe for other users

I think the main reason that make MS windows so vulnerable is that they try to make things too easy for user and backward compatibility. I've told that there are some bugs left for so many year because some programs were written based on that bug and MS can not get rid of it.

And yes, it's so popular and most of the users have no idea what they doing. Easy for hackers to exploit

Answer 3

Two reasons:

1. Microsoft leaves too many holes. It's not that they don't care, I think their security focus in the last 5 years is genuine, but the operating system is huge, has lots of little pieces, and wasn't originally built with attacks in mind.

2. Windows is the most popular operating system by a large margin. A hacker who wants to spread a virus or spyware aims it at the OS that 90% of computers have.

Answer 4

1) Yes. Windows holds 90% market share (roughly - that's desktop market share and really depends on who you ask).

2) Yes and no. Hackers (usually teenage boys) love Microsoft because it makes them feel special. But attacks are generally initiated from non-Microsoft OSes.

3) Yes and no. The policy used to be "infinite backwards compatibility"...that stance seems to be slowly changing. 16-bit code is completely broken under Vista 64-bit (for technical reasons - Intel/AMD 64-bit architecture can't handle 16-bit code). So some doors are naturally closing.

4) Yes and no. There are 50,000 people employed at Microsoft. IMO, most of the programmers there don't know the first thing about proper software design:

http://www.cubiclesoft.com/SafeCPPDesign/

If every programmer at Microsoft had a copy of that book and a real effort was made at security based on the principles, Windows Updates would be nearly non-existent.

5) Yes and no. Microsoft cares about its Public Relations image. Anything that hurts that image is something they tend to take pretty seriously...or at least the Marketing department takes seriously. Vista is an embarrassment for everyone involved. What is making the entire industry laugh is the absolute refusal of Microsoft to admit they made a gigantic mistake and continually stating "Don't wait for SP1" while we wait for SP1 because the experts have said to wait.

Answer 5

It's because Microsoft Windows is the most popular operating system around the world.
Writing malicious software for Windows will gaurantee the most chance of widespread exposure.