RE: Firewalls

> So a TCP/IP buffer overflow won't crash Windows? Windows
> handles all TCP/IP
> processing first so in essence it is still vulnerable.

Yes and No.

Most (read: worth their cost) OS hosted firewalls do, as Doug stated, pre-empt 
the OS and get first bite of the traffic before Windows - they replace the 
Winsock .dll, however they do rely on the Windows (whether written by Microsoft 
or the device manufacturer) device drivers for the NIC, so if there are 
exploits for the device drivers then the firewall software is venerable, but 
it's unlikely as the driver basically just passes off the traffic to registered 
interested parties - the protocol stack, i.e. the firewall software.

--phil