Security News > 2022 > September > What's Microsoft been up to? A quick tour of Windows 11 22H2's security features

As it rolled out a laundry list of features in the latest version of Windows 11, namely version 22H2, this month, Microsoft has also detailed some of the added security mechanisms.

Included among the features is Kernel Mode Hardware Enforced Stack Protection, with Rick Munck, cloud security solution architect at Microsoft, stressing its dependency on hypervisor-protected code integrity.

Munck wrote in a blog post - which handily summarizes 22H2's security measures - that the hardware-enforced stack protection, which can be used with Windows 11 version 22H2 and above, provides additional security to kernel-level software, by hampering exploitation of certain code-execution vulnerabilities.

The feature is part of a larger push Microsoft has been making for several years to more tightly integrate hardware and software security capabilities.

In a lengthy Windows 11 security guide issued last year, and updated in time for the release of version 22H2, Microsoft highlighted the work it has done with chipmakers and system builders to improve its operating system's security.

In a tweet, David Weston, vice president of enterprise and OS security at Microsoft, pointed to updates in the guide, including the inclusion of support for Pluton, a coprocessor designed by Microsoft with chip makers to provide strong protection for encryption keys and system integrity, among other duties, in PCs and is integrated with the host processor.

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