Microsoft WSL Update: New Enterprise-Grade Security Mechanisms

Microsoft has announced new security features for WSL in an attempt to nudge organizations to use this capability.

If you want to run GNU/Linux environments inside your Windows installation without requiring any virtual machines or dual-boot configurations, Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is arguably the best way to go. However, personal and enterprise use-cases and requirements differ significantly, and today, Microsoft has made significant improvements to nudge the latter audience segment in the direction of leveraging WSL in their workflows. 

In a blog post, Microsoft has outlined four new capabilities it has added to WSL in a bid to offer enterprise-grade security monitoring. The headliner is the ability to monitor all security events in WSL distros through Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) using a WSL plugin, without notable impact on resource utilization. In the same vein, WSL plugins that enable integration between Windows applications and WSL are now available; they can be used to transfer information between two applications in separate environments. These capabilities are now in public preview for security teams.