Microsoft has finally started taking the security of its operating system seriously. Today we can say that Windows 10 is a secure operating system.
At least, like everyone else. This system has a number of internal security measures to protect users and is not only installed by default with Windows Defender, but Microsoft is also a free antivirus to protect the operating system from malware. But everything can be improved. And now Windows 10 is a little safer with the kernel privacy feature.
What is KDP – Kernel Data Protection?
Kernel Data Protection is a new security measure implemented by Microsoft to protect the operating system from all types of computer attacks. The main purpose of this security measure is to protect certain parts of the kernel in “read-only” so that nothing is allowed and no one can change them.
With this security measure, the operating system ends attacks against data damage, a common form of attack on Windows that you used to obtain system permissions and avoid other security systems. This new feature reduces attacks that use additional security measures such as code integrity (CI) and control flow protection (CFG).
Advantage
Microsoft has confirmed that using KDP in Windows 10 offers significant benefits for users, which in addition to security also improves the overall experience of the operating system. These benefits include:
- Improve performance. Windows no longer need to constantly check whether variables are read-only, which reduces system load for this task.
- Increases reliability. Troubleshooting is now more accurate because memory corruption should not be a vulnerability.
- Developers can use virtualization to create more secure drivers.
In order to use KDP, our system may only support virtualization-based security (VBS). Therefore, all computers that meet the following requirements can use them:
- Virtualization extensions from AMD, Intel, or ARM.
- Second-level address translations, such as B. EPT for Intel, NPT for AMD, and Phase 2 for ARM.
- MBEC hardware (optional) to reduce performance costs with HVCI.
In general, any relatively modern computer can use this security measure. A measure that is also activated by default and that we do not need to configure.
Insiders only
This new security measure is currently only available to Windows 10 Insider users. We don’t know when Microsoft will bring its KDP to a stable branch of Windows. If the development is very advanced and can be considered stable, we may see it a little early, especially when running Windows 10 20H2.
