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17-Year-Old Windows Bug Surfaces, Squashed by Microsoft

by Caleb Johnson on February 5, 2010 at 05:40 PM

Usually, Microsoft is pretty good about patching up any gaps in security. But with technology changing at breakneck speeds, some mistakes are bound to go unnoticed. According to BBC News, a man recently discovered a bug in Windows that's been around for 17 years. How does a vulnerability go unnoticed long enough for three different presidents to occupy the White House? Honestly, we're not sure. But Tavis Ormandy, the Google security researcher who discovered the bug, found it in a utility that lets newer versions of Windows run programs from the DOS era. Basically, the loophole could allow hackers to hijack a users PC. The bug has been hiding in every version of the operating system since Windows NT 3.1 -- when some of you were just a twinkle in your daddy's eye.

Since Ormandy enlightened the folks at Microsoft about the bug, the company announced it will fix it with a patch that'll be released this month. With this patch, Microsoft will also fix 25 other bugs -- five of which are rated "critical" by security experts. With all this recent bad publicity surrounding Microsoft's security, it doesn't seem like 2010 is starting out how the company would like. [From: BBC News]

Tags: bug, google, microsoft, operating system, OperatingSystem, patch, security, top, windows

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