Windows 8’s anti-virus is vulnerable to attacks, Microsoft confirmed

Apr 5, 2013 12:26 GMT  ·  By

In addition to Internet Explorer and Windows operating systems, Microsoft also plans to patch Windows Defender next week, as it found some security holes that would expose users’ files.

Windows Defender is not the only app that’s affected by privilege escalation vulnerabilities, as SharePoint Server 2010 Service Pack 1 and Groove Server 2010 Service Pack 1 are also in the pipeline for the same update.

Both Windows 8 and Windows RT are equipped with Windows Defender, a full-featured anti-virus application based on the popular Security Essentials app offered by Microsoft for free to Windows users.

Windows Defender is automatically delivered with every single copy of Windows 8 and Windows RT and, while it cannot be completely uninstalled, the application is automatically disabled once you install a third-party anti-virus solution on a computer running Microsoft’s new operating system.