Windows Vista Technical Information

Security features in the Windows Vista operating system have been designed to address the vulnerabilities exposed in laptops running XP and described in the 3 scenarios above and many more. Each Windows Vista feature is described below:

TPM (Trusted Platform Module) Chips Support

Windows Vista TPM Services Architecture supports a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) version 1.2 microchip on the motherboard. The TPM stores keys, passwords, and certificates in encrypted form using RSA, SHA-1 and HMAC. [25] A TPM chip increases the security of BitLocker encryption by making more secure encryption schemes available, along with the certainty that an encrypted disk cannot be read if removed from the machine. The disk also cannot by read if the TPM chip is tampered with in any way. [9]        

Smart card , Biometric Support

Windows Vista provides a new authentication architecture that is simpler for other companies to build interfaces, thus allowing easier implementation of strong authentication devices such as smart cards and biometric devices like fingerprint or retina scanners. Microsoft believes this will lead to a proliferation of these devices for the Windows Vista operating system.

Windows Vista Wireless Enhancements

Microsoft has increased the security of connections to wireless networks with the Windows Vista platform by adding support for encryption technologies not supported in XP, such as native support for the highest level of standards-based security currently available for wireless networks, Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2).

Windows Vista allows users to determine the preferred connection order of wireless networks whether or not they broadcast their SSIDs (Service Set Identifier). [10] Windows XP had no facility to designate a non-broadcasting wireless network as a preferred connection. This forced users to configure routers to broadcast their SSIDs and advertise their existence to hackers, or manually connect their laptops each time they restarted.

Windows Vista also has a long list of wireless enhancements not found in XP that augment the security, efficiency, manageability, and ease of use for users:

Protocols and Core Networking Components

·         Next Generation TCP/IP Stack incorporates features like receive window auto tuning and compound TCP and Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) support to increase speed and stability.

·         Policy-based Quality of Service (QoS) allows setting of inbound and outbound throttle rates and the receive window size.

·         Server Message Block 2.0 (SMB) supports larger buffer sizes and fewer packets than SMB 1.0 in XP.

·         Http.sys enhancements improve management of HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol – used by all web sites) with better authentication, performance and logging than XP.

·         WinINet enhancements support IPv6and better decompression to make web downloads faster. Also supports uploads greater than 4 GB.

·         Windows Sockets enhancements give better security, stability, logging and diagnostics.

·         Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) 6.0 offloads more network traffic processing to the network adapter, saving Central Processing Unit (CPU) cycles.

·         Network Awareness provides a platform to allow the operating system and other applications to adjust to changes in network connections.

·         Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking enhancements include the addition of Windows Meeting Space and other user-to-user improvements over XP.

IEEE 802.11 Wireless Changes and Enhancements

·         The Native Wi-Fi architecture is no longer an emulation of standard Ethernet 802.3, allowing for specific wireless improvements.

·         User interface improvements for wireless connections include the new Network and Sharing Center.

·         Wireless Group Policy enhancements allow easier and centralized configuration of wireless connections.

·         The changes in Wireless Auto Configuration provide more tools to thwart malicious wireless users and supports non-broadcast networks.

·         WPA2 Support is direct (when loaded on an XP machine it must be configured indirectly from a Windows Vista or Longhorn machine).

·         Integration with Network Access Protection (NAP) when using 802.1X authentication allows limited or no access to computers that do not meet health requirements.

·         Host-based Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAPHost) infrastructure for greater security.

·         Wireless connections on Windows Vista now support the Network Diagnostics Framework making them much easier to troubleshoot.

·         Command-line support for configuring wireless settings (not available on XP).

·         Single Sign Onmakes it simpler to use the Domain login for wireless network authentication.