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Google Researcher Issues How-To On Attacking XP

Posted by timothy on from the now-get-to-the-next-phone-booth dept.

theodp writes "A Google engineer Thursday published attack code that exploits a zero-day vulnerability in Windows XP, giving hackers a new way to hijack and infect systems with malware. But other security experts objected to the way the Google engineer disclosed the bug — just five days after it was reported to Microsoft — and said the move is more evidence of the ongoing, and increasingly public, war between the two giants."

4 of 348 comments (clear)

  1. Negative. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He waited five days without even receiving a response from MS. I'd have done the same thing he did.

  2. Re:Irresponsible by axl917 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Could he be sued for this by someone who gets infected?

    Don't be stupid. It isn't the messenger's fault.

  3. Re:Thanks Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    5 days is plenty of time to issue a patch, even if it just closes the hole while a proper fix is worked on.

    You live in a dream world. Yes, 5 days is fine if you have a non-os product that isn't part of an ecosystem with millions of applications running on it. For example to patch something like a text editor - 5 days is probably enough. But a responsible company with millions of installs (Microsoft, Apple) isn't going to rush something out that would break more than it fixes. That would be stupid.

  4. Re:Do no evil by gad_zuki! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >Whatever it takes to damage Microsoft is okay with me.

    This doesnt punish MS, it punishes end users and admins. Sadly, this fact doesnt matter to those who are just full of MS hate.