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This is old news for some of you but realized it's never been posted here, so I'm posting it now.

What makes the situation sad is the fact that having it open is a risk. A well coded operating system should not be at risk if it's source code is made public. Linux is open source, and there are few exploits for it. I'm sure there are some that could cause chaos if a worm was made, but it would be fixed quickly. In fact, Linux has a good percentage of servers so I'm sure worms have already been tried before but failed.


http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=17509&category=main

Neowin has learned of shocking and potentially devastating news. It would appear that two packages are circulating on the internet, one being the source code to Windows 2000, and the other being the source code to Windows NT. At this time, it is hard to establish whether or not full code has leaked, and this will undoubtedly remain the situation until an attempt is made to compile them. Microsoft are currently unavailable for comment surrounding this leak so we have no official response from them at the time of writing.

This leak is a shock not only to Neowin, but to the wider IT industry. The ramifications of this leak are far reaching and devastating. This reporter does not wish to be sensationalist, but the number of industries and critical systems that are based around these technologies that could be damaged by new exploits found in this source code is something that doesn't bare thinking about.

We ask that for the wider benefit of the IT community that members and readers support Microsoft by forwarding anything they know about the leak to the Microsoft's Anti-Piracy department.

Update: Microsoft's Tom Pilla has confirmed the leak stating: "Today we became aware that incomplete portions of Windows 2000 and NT 4.0 source code was illegally made available on the Internet"


Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:2045, old post ID:17183

What makes the situation sad is the fact that having it open is a risk. A well coded operating system should not be at risk if it's source code is made public.

Red, you do realize that it's not just the ramifications of having possible new exploits found, but the fact that it's Microsoft's intellectual property that's been leaked. Not to sound like too much of an MS fan, but still, it wouldn't be that great of a thing if someone leaked all the stuff you've done to secure this site, now would it?

Just a thought. As for Linux, if it was the world's most highly-deployed operating system and Windows was a backbencher that wasn't as widespread, then I'm sure you'd see more exploits, worms and viruses targeted towards it.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:2045, old post ID:17192

True, but the nature of Linux is what makes it so hard to write viruses for it. It is open-source, so anyone who wanted to could examine the the sourcecode of the virus, and find a way to destroy it.

Windows is closed source, and has so many security holes in it, it wouldn't matter if it were #2. The holes would still be exploited.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:2045, old post ID:17193

Red, you do realize that it's not just the ramifications of having possible new exploits found, but the fact that it's Microsoft's intellectual property that's been leaked. Not to sound like too much of an MS fan, but still, it wouldn't be that great of a thing if someone leaked all the stuff you've done to secure this site, now would it?

Just a thought. As for Linux, if it was the world's most highly-deployed operating system and Windows was a backbencher that wasn't as widespread, then I'm sure you'd see more exploits, worms and viruses targeted towards it.

Yes that is true, but what seems to worry them the most is the fact that others can find security holes. It should not be something to be worried about, since it should be secured. If php would stop parsing here, I'd be more concerned of the fact that it's my property, then that someone could find a security hole, because I know that everything I coded is secure. There *might* be security holes, but I'm pretty positive there's none. The only bad thing with php is that the sql password would be visable. So in such incident I'd have to change it asap.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:2045, old post ID:17194