News: Microsoft Confirms Vista Speech Attack Tactic

Windows Vista's speech recognition feature can be used by pranksters to remotely force a PC into executing some commands, Microsoft has confirmed, but the company's security team downplayed the threat. After several security researchers posted messages on mailing lists detailing how a prank could be done -- a malicious Web site, for example, could host an audio file that shouted out commands to shut down the system -- Microsoft's Security Response Center (MSRC) replied in a blog entry Wednesday.