Windows XP, Vista AutoRun update reduces malware infections by 82%

Computerworld - Microsoft today credited a February security update for lowering AutoRun-abusing malware infection rates on Windows XP and Vista by as much as 82% since the start of the year.

Four months ago, Microsoft offered XP and Vista users an optional update -- which was later changed to automatically download and install -- that disabled AutoRun.

Microsoft changed AutoRun's behavior in Windows 7 to block automatic execution of files on a USB drive. It first backported the modifications to Windows XP and Vista in 2009. Until February, however, users had to manually seek out the update.

With the update in place, flash drives inserted into a PC running XP or Vista no longer offer the option to run programs. AutoRun's extinction does not affect CDs or DVDs, however.

The move has paid off in spades, said Microsoft today.

"The infection rates for Windows XP and Vista went down...pretty significantly, in fact," said Holly Stewart, a senior program manager with the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC), in a blog post Tuesday.

According to statistics compiled by the MMPC from data delivered by the Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT), a free utility that detects and deletes some attack code, infection rates of malware that spreads through AutoRun plummeted after the February update reached XP and Vista.

Since January 2011, the month before the AutoRun update shipped, infection rates of XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) -- the sole version still supported by Microsoft -- have dropped by 62%. Vista SP1's infection rate has fallen by 68% while Vista SP2's has plunged by 82% in the same period.

Microsoft will abandon support of Vista SP1 next month.

"That's a huge reduction," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security. "Imagine if AutoRun was never invented."

Storms was talking about the fact that the Windows feature was abused by some of the highest-profile worms in the last two years, including Conficker and Stuxnet.

Microsoft credits a February update for XP and Vista for dramatically dropping infection rates of AutoRun-abusing malware. (Graphic: Microsoft)