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al Qaeda Hacks XP?

acaird writes "According to this article at Newbytes, members of al Qaeda may have worked for Microsoft and planted "trojans, trapdoors, and bugs in Windows XP"." This stuff screams of hoax to me, but it is showing up on the Washington Post.

31 of 736 comments (clear)

  1. Where the hell is Microsoft's PR agency? by Saint+Aardvark · · Score: 5, Funny
    Honestly, things are getting pretty bad for MS if this sort of thing can be published without even a public whipping. :-)

    If this goes on..."Next week on Jerry Springer: Bill Gates is sleeping with my sister!"

    1. Re:Where the hell is Microsoft's PR agency? by Alien54 · · Score: 4, Funny
      Well the way I figure it, they are paranoid enough that someone at MS will try to find out if this is ture or not

      And they will find that there is no way to tell if there are Al-Qeada moles, trap doors, bugs, etc. - the difference between that and normal operation may be minimal at best.

      That may be the Al-qeada plan to destroy America. make sure all MS products stop working after a certain date

      ;-)

      --
      "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
    2. Re:Where the hell is Microsoft's PR agency? by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
      > That may be the Al-qeada plan to destroy America. make sure all MS products stop working after a certain date

      Huh? Last time I checked, Al Queda wanted to destroy the technological world, not save it!

    3. Re:Where the hell is Microsoft's PR agency? by Jason+Earl · · Score: 4, Funny

      Maybe Ballmer's dance is part of the process, that looked fairly rigorous. It also didn't look too terribly effective.

  2. Hmmmm by Your_Mom · · Score: 4, Funny
    Unfortunately, since there already so many holes and bugs in XP, we will never know if they really were successful.


    Unless they commented there code:

    security_hole(); &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp/*b1n l@d1n r00lz!*/


    --
    Objects in the blog are closer then they ap
  3. Those bastards hacked the linux kernel too! by zyqqh · · Score: 5, Funny

    And they even left OVER 700 SEKRET MESSAGES IN THE SOURCE CODE!

    Observe:

    % grep -ir 'a.*l.*q.*a.*e.*d.*a' /usr/src/linux | wc -l
    704

    Time to outlaw leenuks, I say.

    --
    // zyqqh
  4. "rigorous processes" by Geeky · · Score: 3, Funny

    From the article:

    According to Desler, Microsoft has rigorous processes in place during the development of Windows to ensure the security and integrity of source code

    I can sleep easier now.

    --
    Sigs are so 1990s. No way would I be seen dead with one.
  5. don't worry by bnitsua · · Score: 3, Funny

    These backdoors, trojans, etc. are rendered useless by the backdoors, trojans, etc. the NSA placed in XP.

  6. If you don't buy Windows XP... by pulazzo · · Score: 5, Funny

    then the terrorists have won.

  7. Well you know what's next... by ShieldWolf · · Score: 5, Funny

    This just found in winsock.dll in XP:

    seineewerastsisrorretadeuqla

    --
    just = (My)Opinion.toCents();
  8. say what? by cr@ckwhore · · Score: 5, Funny

    last time I checked, these afganhis were hacking and downloading movies with a commodore 64 (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/11/17/20420 7&mode=thread)

    ...no other explanation needed.

    --
    Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
  9. Goodbye to the BSOD? by sid_vicious · · Score: 5, Funny

    So, does this mean goodbye to the "Bluescreen of Death" and hello to the "Bluescreen of Holy Vengeance?"

    --
    If it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.
  10. Re:not as easy as you might think by oddjob · · Score: 5, Funny

    So something like a flight simulator in a spreadsheet program would never make it into a released product...

    Back under your bridge, troll.

  11. So THEY've been putting all those bugs! by Unknown+Bovine+Group · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well now that they've routed the enemy, we can expect future versions of MS OSes to be bug and exploit-free.

    BWAHAHAHAHAA

    --
    m00.
  12. Recycle Bin Laden! by Stavr0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just put this in a .REG file and the evil will be revealed... REGEDIT4 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08- 00AA002F954E}] @="Recycle Bin Laden"

  13. How to tell by Syberghost · · Score: 5, Funny

    We'll know it terrorists slipped code into XP, because if they do, they'll make it support raw port access for non-priviledged users. Clearly only a terrorist would do that, so it'll be a dead giveaway.

  14. good lord by banky · · Score: 5, Funny

    (Outside of an Al Queda recruitment center)
    "OK, people. Line to the left is suicide bombers, center line is front line soldiers, right-hand, nefarious computer geeks."

    or
    (2 terrorists meet to discuss their accomplishments)
    "I have struck a great blow against Satan! I have planted bombs and anthrax!"
    "I, too, have stuck a great blow!"
    "What did you do?"
    "Improper bounds checking in msetl23.dll! I used my own hasty, roll-your-own strcpy()! And as a final coup de gras*, I stole 3 product activation keys and gave them to Best Buy employees"

    Please.

    * terrorists may not actually use phrases like this. Consult your manual.

    --
    ZOMG I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ON MACINTOSH VERSUS WINDOWS, VI VERSUS EMACS, AND HOW YOU'RE NOT A DORK
  15. Re:not as easy as you might think by ianezz · · Score: 4, Funny
    if( strcmp( username, "osama" ) ) { uid=0; }

    Poor ``osama'' user... every other user instantly becomes root, except for him (sorry, couldn't resist - but this is another reason why strcmp() is pure evil sometimes) ;-)

  16. How to get rid of It! by ASyndicate · · Score: 4, Funny

    # chflags noschg /bin/laden
    # rm -f /bin/laden

    Warning: Utitilty /bin/laden removed. Will replace with something even more evil.

    # ln /bin/microsoft /bin/laden
    # chflags schg /bin/laden
    # chflags schg /bin/microsoft

    Thank you for removing /bin/laden

    --
    This page left intentionally blank.
  17. In other news... by sheldon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Members of the militant group Hamas have claimed responsibility for file corruption issue found in the Linux 2.4.15 kernel.

  18. It turns out... by Tony+Shepps · · Score: 4, Funny

    It turns out that al Qaeda is actually a bitter DR-DOS user group.

  19. Taking credit for other people's havok... by coupland · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sounds to me like al-Qaeda is just looking to take credit for the chaos caused by others.

    "You will feel our wrath in the endless bugs and security holes in Windows XP!"

    What's next? "We will cause random car accidents in busy intersections and will lace cigarettes with deadly carcinogens!" OOooo, their prophecies are coming true, everybody! Head for the hills!

  20. Al Qaeda's Elite Supercomputing Matrix by lwagner · · Score: 5, Funny
    9:05a. Breaking News... the alleged five teraflop Al Qaeda computer hax0ring complex has been penetrated by US Special Forces...

    7:30p. This just in - We have learned that the alleged Al Qaeda computing complex was destroyed. US Marines were seen removing five hourglasses, an abacus, and a piece of aluminum foil that were allegedly behind a massive recent distributed denial of service.

  21. holy cow, I found it! by The+Pim · · Score: 4, Funny
    On a hunch, I started grep'ing through XP, and stumbled across the backdoor password:

    !seineew era snaitsirhC dna sweJ
    --

    The evaluation of an action as 'practical' . . . depends on what it is that one wishes to practice.
  22. yes, worry. by Erris · · Score: 3, Funny
    Don't forget the ones there by design. You know, like the remote kill switch for too many hardware modifications, and others to make sure you don't rip M$ off. Ha ha ha. If M$ can do it, you can be sure others will figure it out and be doing it.

    Also, don't forget the ones that are there by poor implimentation. You know, like sound files in email that get executed without warning.

    Also, don't forget the ones that are there due to poor design. You know, like an email client that runs as root because there are no real user accounts and the underlying file system will not support that and ....

    Don't forget to combine all of the above with poor judgement. Well, running M$ with anything but in single user non networked air gap protected mode is poor judgement. Worse judgement is attatching a camera and an always on high speed internet connection in your freaking bedroom, ha-ha(banned in Saudi Arabia).

    Alah-Akbar. It's true you know.

    --
    DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
  23. Bill Gates holds press release on Al Qaeda hacks by hoggoth · · Score: 5, Funny
    This just in:

    "Bill Gates holds press release on Al Qaeda hacks in Windows XP."
    Redmond- Bill Gates today held a press release to confirm the presence of "hacked" code in the Windows XP product, and admitted for the first time that all previous versions of Windows also had "hacked" code inserted maliciously by covert Al Qaeda operatives within the Microsoft Corporation. "We have confirmed the presence of this code in all versions of Microsoft Windows from 3.0 to XP. The code we have found was planted by covert Al Qaeda operatives who were employed by Microsoft for years. This was a long-term terrorist operation planned years in advance and executed with frightening efficiency. We have investigated the code and found it to be the cause of instability in Windows products. As a matter of fact, the infamous "Blue Screen of Death" was in fact an Al Qaeda trojan. We will be release a full list in the coming week of all the Windows problems that the Al Qaeda terrorists are responsible for after a full investigation of all the things that make Windows suck."

    --
    - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
  24. Ah... by ZoneGray · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ahhh, it all makes sense now. No matter how hard I tried, I could never land properly in MS Flight Simulator.

  25. Breaking up Microsoft! by Proud+Geek · · Score: 5, Funny

    At only $27,000 each, a Daisy Cutter would be both faster and cheaper than waiting for the courts to break up Microsoft.

    --

    Even Slashdot wants to hide some things

  26. lets get it straight by abes · · Score: 4, Funny

    They were planting features, not trojans or trapdoors.

  27. Re:not as easy as you might think by jayhawk88 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, I'm sure Bill was real pissed when the lid was blown off that little hack.

    Get a clue. If your a PHB code reviewer at MS, there's a big difference between finding out your programmers have actually been having a little fun on the job with a hidden easter egg, and trying to figure out the functionality of backdoorforallah.dll.

  28. Re:not as easy as you might think - VERY EASY by mobiGeek · · Score: 3, Funny
    My standard practice is to never install a Microsoft OS until it has been "in the field" for -at least- a year

    My policy is half of that: the first half!

    --

    ...Beware the IDEs of Microsoft...