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WinXP Security Flaw
Many readers have submitted word of the newest security hole in Windows XP. joshjs, for instance, writes: "Don't know if this is common knowledge at this point or not, but apparently some security researchers discovered that Windows XP's universal plug and play features contain a huge security flaw: 'A Microsoft official acknowledged that the risk to consumers was unprecedented because the glitches allow hackers to seize control of all Windows XP operating system software without requiring a computer user to do anything except connect to the Internet. ... Microsoft made available on its Web site a free fix for both home and professional editions of Windows XP and forcefully urged consumers to install it immediately.' Read more at the Washington Post's story." No OS is perfectly secure, but I bet a lot of new XP owners won't be too happy about this. Update: 12/20 20:05 GMT by T : fcrick submits a link to the same AP story at Wired, and several readers have pointed out that a patch is available. Update: 12/20 21:31 GMT by T : And as banuaba writes: "This hole also affects versions of 98 with XP File sharing installed and all versions of ME."
"This is the first network-based, remote compromise that I'm aware of for Windows desktop systems," said Scott Culp..
HAHAHAHAHAH.. Oh man what rock has he been under?
Is there any MS Windows XP bug counter on the web? Something like:
I think it would be funny, we could also compare with Linux 2.4.x bugs. And maybe we can also have a Score thing, or something like /.
Any suggestion? Any website that already do this?
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I know life isn't fair, but why can't it ever be un-fair in MY favor!?
Wait one minute. Windows XP is supposed to be the most sophisticated and secure OS in the history of mankind! I know it, because MS said so! And since MS is so well known for their honesty and outstanding software engineering abilities, this story must be wrong. I mean, Bill just wouldn't let us down like this... he loves us!!!
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to run out to the store and buy some more Xbox games. My master deems in necessary.
Who would have even thought it was possible. After all Windows has been so secure in the past. I may have to look into something else.....snicker...
You don't own Linux either. It is licensed to you under the GNU General Public License.
Linux is owned by Linux Tordvals and others.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
This is certainly another very ugly bit of egg on the face for Redmond, but the article is misleading. For Win98 clients, the only way to be affected by this bug is if they had independently installed the ICS software from WinXP. In WinMe, it is present as an installable option, but is NOT installed by default.
Also, according to the M$ bulletin:
"Standard firewalling practices (specifically, blocking ports 1900 and 5000) could be used to protect corporate networks from Internet-based attacks."
Call me crazy, but any sysadmin interested in keeping his/her job doesn't blindly leave ports open on the firewall. Not that that would help out poor mom and pop who just bought a fancy new Dell because that nice boy Steve on the television told them it was cool, but what can you do? Anyone with any kind of "always on" connection would have to be an idiot to not engage some kind of firewall for their connection. The fact that M$ has a (limited) firewall functionality built into XP is at least a step in the right direction. I haven't played with it, so I don't know whether it installs by default, or requires any kind of real technical knowledge to setup (it's Windows, so my guess is no).
The fact that they can still have holes like these in any code that runs in a priveleged level is simply unforgiveable, though. I mean, isn't it simply a commonly accepted development practice to place safegaurds (ie, using strnlen() as opposed to strlen() or something - it's been a while since I've done any network coding) in any and all buffers receiving any kind of data from any kind of socket connection?
"Oh my God! The dead have risen! And they're voting Republican!" - Bart Simpson
"Linux" the trademark is owned by Linus
"Linux" the copyright is owned by Linus and others.
The GPL is a EULA which assigns you specific rights regarding distribution & modification. It is no different legally than a Microsoft, Oracle or IBM license. It's contents are obviously different.
A copy of the GNU General Public License is available here. Please read it.
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
That's almost scarier than the fact that the exploit is there in the first place. Buffer overflows just shouldn't be possible in well-written software. The fact that MS continues to get them betrays the fact that the languages, tools and/or libraries they're using to write these products are not suitable for the job, and that means there could be any number of other problems (security or otherwise) with the same products.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Discuss.
---K2K was here---