Securing Redirections with Mike Macelletti

Security Unlocked

In this episode of The BlueHat Podcast, host Nic Fillingham and Wendy Zenone are joined by Mike Macelletti from Microsoft’s MSRC Vulnerabilities and Mitigations team to explore Redirection Guard, a powerful mitigation designed to tackle a long-standing class of file path redirection vulnerabilities in Windows. Mike shares how his interest in security began, the journey behind developing Redirection Guard, and how it's helping reduce a once-common bug class across Microsoft products. He also explains how the feature works, why it's impactful, and what developers can do to adopt it. Plus, a few fun detours into Solitaire hacking, skiing, and protein powder.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

• What Redirection Guard is and how it helps prevent file system vulnerabilities
• How Microsoft identifies and addresses common bug classes across their ecosystem
• Why some vulnerabilities still slip past Redirection Guard and what’s out of scope

Some Questions We Ask:

• What is a junction and how is it different from other redirects?
• How does Redirection Guard decide which shortcuts to block?
• Are there vulnerabilities Redirection Guard doesn’t cover?

Resources:

View Mike Macelletti on LinkedIn

View Wendy Zenone on LinkedIn

View Nic Fillingham on LinkedIn

Related Microsoft Podcasts:

• Microsoft Threat Intelligence Podcast
• Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson
• Uncovering Hidden Risks

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts

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