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Industry: Email Alert RSS FeedMicrosoft reveals Vista's speech recognition flaw
Worldwide Computer Products News, Feb 2, 2007
Worldwide Computer Products News-2 February 2007-Microsoft reveals Vista's speech recognition flaw(C)1995-2007 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http://www.m2.com
Software company Microsoft has revealed that speech recognition features in its new Windows Vista operating system could be hijacked, resulting in the PC instructing itself to delete folders or files.
The Vista OS is able to respond to vocal commands, which has led to concern over the opportunity for malicious audio on websites or sent by e-mail. Although users have outlined scenarios such as an MP3 file of voice instructions being used to instruct the PC to delete documents, Microsoft has claimed while the exploit is technically possible, there is no need to worry.
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Microsoft confirmed that voice commands can not be used for functions such as formatting a drive, or creating a new user. While it said it would be unlikely a user would not hear a file with malicious instructions being played, some Vista users claim to have tested the exploit by deleting files and emptying the trash to prevent documents being retrieved.
According to Microsoft, the speech recognition feature must be activated and configured, with microphone and speakers switched on, in order for the flaw to be exploited.
((Comments on this story may be sent to info@m2.com))
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