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Microsoft Opens Source to China

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the not-part-of-the-axis-of-evil dept.

angst7 writes "ZDNet is reporting that Microsoft has signed an agreement which would allow the Chinese government access to Windows source code. This is part of an effort to curb the shift toward Linux in China due to that country's concerns regarding the security of closed source software." Reader NZheretic points out that less than a year ago, Jim Allchin swore under oath that disclosing the Windows operating system source code could damage national security.

11 of 480 comments (clear)

  1. That's shares source with China, by lightspawn · · Score: 4, Informative

    not opens source to China.

  2. Microsoft policy... by $$$$$exyGal · · Score: 4, Informative
    Here is Microsoft's new policy in regards to sharing their source with governments.

    --sex

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    Very popular slashdot journal for adul
  3. Not a big deal by quintessent · · Score: 2, Informative

    Many, many countries already have access to the Windows source, not to mention many businesses and universities.

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    Donate background CPU time to fight cancer.
  4. Re:Ah... by ebbomega · · Score: 2, Informative

    Um.... reverse engineer?

    They released the source to them.

    There's no need to reverse engineer it...

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    Karma: Non-Heinous
  5. Re:And it was so hard for them to make viruses bef by gearheadsmp · · Score: 3, Informative

    In case you didn't know, the "People's Republic of China" has an entire department(ie Air Force, Navy) dedicated to Information Warfare. Which does in fact, include computer viruses.

  6. Re:So now the Chinese have it!!! by yourmom16 · · Score: 2, Informative
    Its not treason according to the definition in the constitution(Article 3 section 3)

    Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

    China is not an enemy right now and M$ is not declaring war on the US(they own it so why would they).

    --
    "We have got to make Stan understand the importance of voting, because he'll definitely vote for our guy." - South Park
  7. Re:NSA Linux by Chazmati · · Score: 4, Informative

    OK, before I get flamed, yes I see in the FAQ:

    Security-enhanced Linux is only a research prototype that is intended to demonstrate mandatory controls in a modern operating system like Linux and thus is very unlikely to meet any interesting definition of secure system.

    and

    Security-enhanced Linux is not part of any currently approved version of Linux and has no special or additional approval for government use over any other version of Linux.

    So maybe NSA Linux isn't the answer, the NSA thing just seemed obvious since we're talking about government use. However, it almost sounds like they might have an approved version of Linux available. Wonder if they're experimenting with that...

  8. Re:Not even sharing, just showing really by Karl+J.+Smith · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is just silly. Read-only access to source doesn't demonstrate the lack of backdoors. Even if they *could* compile, that still wouldn't protect them from this classic "Reflections on Trusting Trust" attack.

  9. Re:What's good for Microsoft ... by buttahead · · Score: 2, Informative
    The Navy has already been bitten... more than once. At least one ship, the Yorktown, has had a BSOD. the "smart ship" tech that the following quote talks about is a windows based control system.


    Between July 1995 and June 1997, the Yorktown lost propulsion power to
    buffer overflows twice while using the new Smart Ship technology, said
    Capt. Richard Rushton, commanding officer of the Yorktown at the time
    of the failures. But in each incidence the Yorktown crew knew what
    caused the failure and quickly restored systems, Rushton said.

    that quote is from this link

  10. Re:Microsoft is aiding terrorists by vsprintf · · Score: 1, Informative

    If this affects US security, can John Ashcroft detain Bill Gates?

    Ashcroft would get down on his knees do a hummer for Billy G because he's a big business icon.

  11. This won't help them detect intentional back doors by David+Leppik · · Score: 5, Informative

    While I can see how this will help China discover unintentional backdoors, this won't help them against intentional backdoors.



    There was an old hack which Ken Thompson used to give himself access to all Unix systems, as a proof-of-concept of why you shouldn't trust source code. He didn't modify the Unix source code. Nor did he modify the C compiler used to generate the Unix binaries. He modified the C compiler used to compile the C compiler. Full source code access wouldn't help you see the exploit.



    Details are at
    http://www.wbglinks.net/pages/reads/hacksexplain ed /thompson.html.

    China doesn't have the rights to compile the source code they get. Even if they do (and I'm sure they will, if it's of any use to them) they won't be able to verify that the code is free of intentional backdoors-- because presumably it requires M$'s compiler. Even if they get access to the compiler source code (and I don't think they do) they can't verify that it doesn't have a back door.



    If I were China I'd be afraid that the US government has hidden an exploit in Windows. That may seem paranoid, but security folks are supposed to be a little paranoid. I wouldn't trust Windows, source code or not.



    Come to think of it, I wouldn't trust the American-designed processor, BIOS, disk controllers, RAM, keyboard controller, chip design tools, etc.