2017 Symposium Posters

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Malware Privilege Level vs. Infection Strength on Windows 7


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Primary Investigator:
Marcus Thompson

Project Members
Eric Buedel
Abstract
Many Windows users use an administrator account for all computing tasks, violating the Principle of Least Privilege. In the event of a malware infection, the malware could take advantage of the administrator privileges if other features, such as User Account Control (UAC), are used incorrectly, making the infection more deadly. A 2010 study showed that most users do not use UAC correctly, so the users who use an administrator account as their sole account on Windows may be especially vulnerable to malware infections. The goal of this research is to determine if such users are indeed more vulnerable to malware infections.