Windows Vista Network Attack Surface Analysis

The network stack in Windows Vista was rewritten from the ground up. In deciding to rewrite the stack, Microsoft has removed a large body of tried and tested code and replaced it with freshly written code, complete with new corner cases and defects. This may provide for a more stable networking stack in the long term, but stability will suffer in the short term. Despite the claims of Microsoft developers, the Windows Vista network stack as it exists today is less stable than the earlier Windows XP stack. We have identified several implementation flaws in the 5270 Windows Vista build and even more in earlier builds, though these have been fixed in 5384. While it is reassuring that Microsoft is finding and fixing these defects, we expect that vulnerabilities will continue to be discovered for some time. A networking stack is a complex piece of software that takes many years to mature.

Read the pdf file and see their weblog post on this. See CNET News.com and Dailytech articles.