The long-lived Microsoft Windows XP operating system, which still accounts for more than 1% of all laptops and desktops worldwide, was reportedly leaked to the Internet at the same time as Windows Server 2003.
Yeah, you heard right.
The source code of the 19-year-old Microsoft operating system has been published as a torrent file on the famous 4-channel Bulletin Board site, and this is the first time that the source code of the Microsoft operating system has been released to the public.
According to some reports, the 43GB torrent file collection also includes source code for Windows Server 2003 and some older Microsoft operating systems:
- Window 2000
- Windows CE 3
- Windows CE 4
- Windows CE 5
- Windows Embedded 7
- Windows Embedded CE
- Windows NT 3.5
- Windows NT 4
- MS-DOS 3.30
- MS-DOS 6.0
The torrent download also includes the source code for several components of Windows 10, which appeared in 2017, as well as the source code for the original Xbox operating system, which appeared on the network in May.
Although Microsoft has not yet officially confirmed or denied the leak, several independent security researchers have now begun analyzing the source code and talking about its legitimacy (1, 2).
Under the name billgates3, the leak claims to have compiled a collection of Microsoft source code in recent months.
The leak also said that many source files of the Microsoft operating system have been privately transferred between hackers for years.
The leak therefore decided to share the source code with the public, as the information should be free and accessible to everyone.
I created this avalanche for the community because I believe that information should be free and available to everyone, and keeping the information secret from myself and keeping it secret is an evil in my eyes, said the leak, adding that the company claims to love open source, so they will probably like how open source is now if it is transferred to BitTorrent.
In addition to the source code, the torrent also contains a media folder (files and videos) related to Bill Gates’ conspiracy theories.
The leakage of source code should come as no surprise, as Microsoft has in the past made the source code of its operating system available to governments around the world through a special public security program (PSP) managed by the company that allows governments and organizations to control access to the source code.
It goes without saying that Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP as early as 2014, so a leak in the source code does not make systems with an outdated operating system more suitable, because there are probably already many other unforeseen vulnerabilities.
However, because operating systems can exchange code, the operational errors found in the source code of Windows XP and still present in Windows 10, can allow hackers to attack newer versions of the entire Windows operating system, posing a real threat to billions of users.
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