Microsoft Unveils Open Source Exploit Finder
Houston 2600 sends this excerpt from the Register about an open-source security assessment tool Microsoft presented at CanSecWest:
"Microsoft on Friday released an open-source program designed to streamline the labor-intensive process of identifying security vulnerabilities in software while it's still under development. As its name suggests, !exploitable Crash Analyzer (pronounced 'bang exploitable crash analyzer') combs through bugs that cause a program to seize up, and assesses the likelihood of them being exploited by attackers. Dan Kaminsky, a well-known security expert who also provides consulting services to Microsoft, hailed the release a 'game changer' because it provides a reliable way for developers to sort through thousands of bugs to identify the several dozen that pose the greatest risk."
The GPL maximises protection against software patents and forbids distribution as proprietary-only software. The Ms-PL minimizes protection against software patents and forbids distribution as libre-only software. The Ms-PL formally fulfills the requirements for an OSI approval but apart from that it is everything what you would expect a license from Microsoft to be. To understand the Ms-PL just imagine the Venn diagram for the following equation: MsPL = ( OSI - GPL ) & Microsoft