Let’s start off by providing a little history around the
challenges seen with Protected Mode and Internet Explorer (first
introduced with Internet Explorer 7). In Microsoft Windows
Vista, Windows Internet Explorer 7 runs, by default, in
Protected Mode. This helps protect users from attack by running
the Internet Explorer process with greatly restricted
privileges. Protected Mode significantly reduces the ability of
an attack to write, alter or destroy data on the user's machine
or to install malicious code. Protected Mode IE separates the
temporary/persistent data that IE saves from regular LUA
(Limited User Account) IE and elevated IE. This is to prevent
cross IE injection paths, keeping users secure. However, one of
the most significant application compatibility issues remaining
with Internet Explorer’s Protected Mode and the low integrity
architecture is sharing of cookie data between low and higher
integrity processes. When using winINET APIS, a low process like
IE’s Protected Mode can only create and man