Neowin.net Exclusive: Windows 2000 & Windows NT 4 Source Code Leaks

[ranvier]

source: http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?i...&category=main
Posted by creamhackered on 12 Feb 2004 - 21:22 CET

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"

Please do not post any links/screenshots/hints or anything to do with the source code outbreak. Discussion is allowed but we will not condone people spreading this source code.

* View: Microsoft's Official Response
* View: Microsoft Piracy Department

[GibboNet]

There has been speculation that it's going to mean a whole lot of trouble for the internet world at large.

Firstly, anyone with some knoewledge mayb be able to spot a weakness in the code, allowing for a new virus / trojan / whatever to take advantage of the newly discovered falw.

Then there's programmers, who, after viewing source code my think they should use something similar in their own coding. This of course could lead to big copyright violations and such.

I say everyone stay away from it, because it's not going to help much.

It's amazing that it hasn't been leaked a lot sooner, as a few university teams and such have been given access to the code, to work with. It was only a matter of time.

[CareBear]

http://news.com.com/2100-7349_3-5158...?tag=nefd_lede
The 203MB file expands to just under 660MB, he said, noting that the final code size almost perfectly matches the capacity of a typical CD-ROM. The entire source code, he said, is believed to be about 40GB, meaning that the file circulating Thursday is only a fraction of the full code base.

I wish whoever feels like wading through 660Mb of incomplete OS source code the best of luck.

[tandoc]

I'd like to know why you'd want to look at Microsoft code....

sure the linux kernel source because it has wacky comments....

[CareBear]

Originally posted by tandoc
sure the linux kernel source because it has wacky comments....

The only Linux source code I ever looked over was v0.01 when I busy with a protected mode OS.
I remember it being only sparsely commented and then with either: "this should do so and so (just not yet)" or "I don't know why, but it works. (I hope)"

[CareBear]

Originally posted by gulp
Yes, yes, but some people ask "how do we know that microsoft itself did not anonymously leak the source codes ? "

u see, some people think that winnt and 2000 is becoming out of date and people are not buying them much and so microsoft thought that if they release the source codes then it doesn't really do them any harm.
Infact, it does them good because malicious people will now get the chance to look at the source codes to find weaknesses and create viruses based on it which at the end will give microsoft an opportunity to create new virus killers and make heavy sales.

That makes no sense at all
Hundreds of manyears have gone into developping Windows, they're not about to just give away the source code to it. Also, a lot of the code is shared among all of the different versions of Windows. The full Win2k source would contain a good portion of WinXP's and Win2003's source.
Microsoft takes an incredible amount of heat each time a virus infects computers on a large scale. It hurts their image, and their claim of a secure OS. They have a whole team of developers working on nothing but reviewing the source code for security issues, along with external security consultants.
In any case, they already have a lead on where the source might have come from.. and ironically enough it seems to have come from a UNIX oriented company.

[notnamed]

gulp, a couple things.
1) If it was Microsoft, why is it only a tiny bit of the code?
2) If it was Microsoft, why hasn't Windows 1, 3.1, 3.11, 95, 95A, 95B, 98, 98SE, and earlier versions of NT been released?
3) Why would they do it anonymously?

[gulp]

Originally posted by notnamed
gulp, a couple things.
1) If it was Microsoft, why is it only a tiny bit of the code?
2) If it was Microsoft, why hasn't Windows 1, 3.1, 3.11, 95, 95A, 95B, 98, 98SE, and earlier versions of NT been released?
3) Why would they do it anonymously?

Hey, don't ask me these questions because I made it clear that the accusations are not coming from me.
If you read my post properly, you will see that I said that, there are some people who think like this about microsoft.
And so, I am only saying what they suspect.
That' all.
I just posted what they suspect to see if any-one else feels the same way.
If so, then that means their suspicions have weight.
Also, these suspectors ask :

"Why was only a fraction of the codes released and not all ?
What can a fraction be use to ?
Certainly cannot be used as an OS.
To us ordinary folks this small fragment is use-less but to virus writers it is a lot.
And so, microsoft released this small fragment giving virus writers the opportunity to write viruses so that they can come-up with an opportunity to write virus killers and make heavy bucks from it."

Well, that' their version.
And they hate microsoft and love unix and co.