Atli Gudmundsson Symantec Security Response, EMEA
Traditionally, Intel and Microsoft have maintained backward compatibility with older versions of their products. The IA64 architecture and the Windows 64 (Whistler) operating system are no exceptions to this rule, with elaborate steps taken to make old applications work seamlessly under his new combination. However, these new platforms present a unique risk, a risk that needs to be taken seriously: existing malware that run on the current 32-bit Windows platform.
This paper will explain briefly how the Win64/IA64 platform supports the Win32/IA32 platform and therefore pre-existing malware for that platform. But, more importantly, this paper will investigate how current malware can potentially corrupt and destroy Win64 applications.
Finally, this paper will present guidelines, for AV vendors, on how to recognize these types of corruption as well as possible ways of fixing them.
